


A New Development

by awhitehead17



Series: Tim's Powers AU [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Red Robin (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Tim gets powers, Angst, Arguments, Brotherly Bonding, Charcters being assholes to one another, Fluff, Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, Jason is a good brother, M/M, Telekinesis, Tim gets powers, Tim has to deal with things, Tim panics to much, batfam, eventual Timkon, poor Tim, spoiler- tim's power is telekinesis, tim gets captured, tim gets used as a science experiment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-03
Updated: 2018-01-26
Packaged: 2018-12-23 12:37:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 29
Words: 85,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11989953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awhitehead17/pseuds/awhitehead17
Summary: Alternate universe where Tim Drake has powers. Being used as a science experiment ends up with Tim getting powers, but now he has to learn how to live his life with these new abilities. However being in a city where its protector hates meta humans, Tim has to try to get a handle of this new development that's happened to him before his mentor finds out about it.





	1. Tim Screws Up

**Author's Note:**

> There are use of needles and restraints, just as a warning. Uses of swearing every now and again. 
> 
> All mistakes made in this bit of work are mine.

It was his own fault. He knew that. This whole mess was his own fault, not Dick’s, surprisingly not Jason’s and not even any of the Titan’s. Just his own. Once again he scolds his sleep deprived, drugged up on strong black coffee self for getting in this mess. He really shouldn’t have gone out on patrol that night, why he had thought it was a good idea he doesn’t know.

How they captured him was because he got caught off guard, they just looked like regular thugs and nothing more however when he started to fight them he realised that they were more than ordinary thugs by the amount of skill and agility they actually had, even so he should have been able to beat them but in his sleep deprived state they easily over powered him and knocked him unconscious.

When Tim woke up he found himself in a small room that occupied nothing but a small mattress on the floor and a bowl in the corner. He was no longer in his suit but in simple grey shorts and a white tank top, this immediately put him on high alert because no one knew how to disable his suit except those in the Bat family and certain Titans. Thankfully his mask was still on which gave him a little reassurance but not a lot. Finding no way to escape the room, he found himself anxiously waiting for something to happen, though pretty soon after waking up the locked door to his room opened up and revealed three men in lab coats.

The three men, who he quickly nicknamed Trash, Blondie and Lanky, manhandled him into a different room and forced him into a chair which closely looked like it was something from the dentist. Of course he tried to fight his way out but the bigger bulk of both Blondie and Trash allowed them to get the upper hand and restrain him. They strapped him down to the chair at the biceps, wrists, abdomen, thighs, ankles and across his chest therefore leaving absolutely immobilized. These guys really did not want him escaping. The strap was thick and heavy across his chest and the restraints everywhere else were tight and rigid meaning he couldn’t wiggle his way out.

That first time they had him restrained he knew what they were doing, the all too familiar moves were seen frequently at the Bat cave, and that was taking test tubes samples of his blood. What for, Tim didn’t know. They didn’t even talk to him or tell him anything, even when he started to shout ranges of profanity at them they remained silent. Soon enough they were finished with him, they injected him with a sedative which quickly took it course and left him limp. They undid all the restraints and took him back to the room he woke up in.

After that he didn’t see the three men for a week. Food and water was passed to him by different people each day along with a newspaper and a fictional novel. To pass the time he did basic workout exercises, read the books and slept but by the end of the week the isolation was starting to get to him. Not seeing anyone besides the people who quickly came in and out was making him jittery and he didn’t like it.

Tim had tried to escape a few times by running out the door when they entered but it always ended up in the same way, with a needle getting shoved in his neck and then proceeding to pass out on the floor.

At the start of the second week Trash, Blondie and Lanky showed up again, they forced him into the room with the chair and restrained him down, he struggled as much as he could but he was quickly restrained to the point of no movement. The three men went about the room quietly talking among themselves, to quiet for Tim to hear which frustrated him as he still didn’t know what they wanted with him at this point.

They clearly didn’t want him for his identity as they would have forced his mask off his face at the start rather than waiting for him to remove it when they let him shower once during the week a few days into his capture, they hadn’t even questioned him for his name. Instead they took his blood and this left him wondering if it was him in particular that they wanted or whether it was just that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was most likely the latter.

Lanky came up next to him with a needle in hand and Tim eyed it wearily

Announcing in a low voice Lanky says. “Experiment 56 is underway, beginning with stage one injection one in the left shoulder.” He then proceeded to inject Tim in the left shoulder with the needle.

 _Experiment 56?_ Tim thinks to himself. What does that mean? Could this mean that he’s the 56th person they done this on, it must be.

He’s broken out of his thoughts when a sudden pain erupts in his left arm. Tim clenches his teeth together as the pain seems to travel down his arm and goes to the tips of his fingers. The pain reminded him of a bone snapping and causing that sudden pain to develop. Though he knows this isn’t a broken bone, what it really was he has no idea.

The pain slowly eases away but leaves a tingling sensation behind all through his arm. It was like having bad pins and needles. What was worse is that he couldn’t even move his arm and the only thing he could do was wiggle his fingers which did very little to ease down the tingling sensation.

Breathing heavily he sends a glare at Lanky who stood next to his side with a blank expression, Tim more or less growls at him, “What the fuck did you just put into me?”

Lanky doesn’t reply with anything except a raise eyebrow which makes Tim sneer at him. Tim’s attention is taken off Lanky when Blondie comes up next to him on his right. He glances over at the man and spots another needle in his hand.

“Injection two in the right shoulder is taking place now.” He speaks out with a deep voice.

Tim hisses in pain as he feels the needle impale his skin. This one hurt a lot more than the last. Tim tries to focus on his breathing but gets quickly distracted by the pain flaring up in his right arm. Just like his left, the pain travels down to his fingers and lingers there before easing away. It once again leaves a tingling sensation in his arm.

Tim’s breathing a lot more heavily now, he’s trying to control it but for some reason he’s finding it hard to. Both of his arms are starting to go numb from the tingling. What the hell are they injecting him with? Tim tries to think of anything that could be causing this affect but his mind comes up blank.

His thoughts are once again broken by the approach of Trash down by his left thigh; he too has a needle in his hands. Tim internally groans. What are they doing to him?!

In a higher voice compared to his companions Trash says “Injection 3 into the left thigh is taking place.”

Tim makes the mistake of tensing his leg just before he gets injected therefore causing it to hurt a lot more than it really should of. This time he can’t help but let out a pained sound as the sharp feeling explodes in his thigh and travels down to his toes. Like his arms the pain fades and leaves a tingling sensation.

At this point he didn’t even notice the forth injection enter his right thigh but he does notice the pain that develops from it. He once again lets out a pained sound as it travels down his leg then continues to fade away.

Tim tries to control his uneven breathing but struggles to as he feels the numbness in all his limbs now. What are they doing to him? He does nothing as he watches the men undo all the restraints on him, he wishes he could lash out right now and take them by surprise but he can’t seem to move his limbs. He does nothing but accept it when Blondie picks him up and carries him back to the room then only to unceremoniously dump him on the mattress. Tim does nothing except from curling up into a ball on the mattress after getting some feeling back into his limbs then proceeding to fall asleep.


	2. The Results Of That Screw Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tim is still trapped and something happens that will change his life forever.

Tim wakes up to achiness in all his limbs, they feel heavy like he’s ran two marathons back to back. He feels extremely lethargic and that’s something he hasn’t felt like in a long time. He doesn’t move from the mattress he’s laying on.

Later on that same day when the three men come into his room, or more like cell, they seemed genuinely surprised that he’s awake or more or less alive even though Tim doesn’t exactly feel it. In his dazed state Tim certainly doesn’t miss the smiles the three men share with one another after seeing he was awake.

After the men leave he doesn’t see them again. During the rest of the day, which seemed to drag out to Tim, he slowly gets himself together and manages to sit up and even manages a few bites of the food they leave him. He tests out his limbs to still find them aching but now more manageable than before.

_What did they inject me with?_ He thinks to himself again. He just can’t place anything in his mind where injections cause that kind of effect in his limbs. Since the pain travel down each limb quickly perhaps it's something to do with his blood rather than his muscles? Tim shakes his head in a dismissive manner, he has no idea.

Tim goes through all that twice more. He’s taken to the chair and then put through all the injections again, all in the same places. He has the exact same reactions as he did the first time round. They all develop a sharp pain which travels down through each limb and then leaves them tingling then eventually numb. He then wakes up the next morning completely out of it and barley being able to move until later on in the day.

The only thing that changes within them few days is the three men’s expression when they see him alive the next morning’s after the injections. Each time they seem more surprised and even happier that he is alive. This just puts Tim on edge because if they’re happy to see him alive each day after the injections, how many others had died while they experimented on them? _‘Experiment 56.’_ Surely 55 other people haven’t died while being injected with whatever the substance is. The thought of that makes Tim want to be sick. Who the hell are these people?

After the third time with the injections they leave him alone for two days and he knows its two days because that's how many papers there are in between that time. Really that's how he’s keeping track of all the days he’s spent in here, one paper per a day. So far he’s been here for two weeks. The optimistic side of him hopes that Batman is looking for him and along with the others but the pessimistic side of him wonders if anyone has noticed he disappeared. It's not uncommon for him to disappear every now and again, especially if he’s buried in case work but surely someone has noticed that he hasn’t contacted anyone for a long time.

It’s at the very start of the third week of his capture that everything changes. Tim wakes up on the mattress feeling different and he couldn’t exactly place what it was. It was like his whole skin was now tingling but unlike the injections it was a good tingle, one that sent warmth through his body. He notices that the feeling was most prominent at his fingertips, he looks them to see that nothing has changed, that they are still just his own ordinary fingers.

Later on that day he gets forced into the chair by Blondie and Trash. As the men wonder about the room Tim takes the time to notice that the restraints on him feel tighter than usual, on his wrists in particular. It feels like he’s pulling against the restraints but in reality he’s not even moving. He even looks at his wrists to confirm he’s not fighting against them.

He takes a closer look at the cuff around his right wrist to see where it locks together is slightly pulling apart, like its being forced open. Of course he has tried to undo the cuffs by himself by yanking his wrist upwards and by twisting it as much as he can without dislocating his arm and thumbs but he only achieved in getting red patches on the skin. Looking at the cuff he can’t help but imagine it actually coming apart, being forced open to set his wrist free. Unexpectedly when the cuff does unlock he just stares at it in shock and disbelief, and because there was silence in the room the three men notice it when it comes undone. Tim is half aware of the men staring at the lock and at him in confusion but he’s too busy staring at the lock in disbelief to actually care.

_How the hell did that come undone?_

Lanky reaches over him and clicks it back shut then moves away with his eyebrows furrowed. Blondie then comes up next to him with another needle in hand. In his deep voice he announces “Stage four, injection one is now underway.” Blondie goes to inject Tim in his shoulder when suddenly he stops short. His face shows his confusion as he presses harder to try and pierce Tim’s skin with the needle.

For Tim’s part he notices that where Blondie is trying to inject him that the tingling sense he has been feeling has suddenly become stronger around his shoulder. It's seems like that is what is stopping the man from injecting him, like the feeling is repelling the needle away from his skin. Concentrating on what he is feeling even further, Tim notices that he can actually feel the coldness of the needle without it even being in his skin and the fact that he can feel the shape of the syringe itself, like he’s the one actually holding it.

Being shocked by this sudden sensation Tim doesn’t even realise that the syringe in Blondie’s has smashed, causing liquid to go everywhere. Tim then no longer feels the coldness of the needle or the shape of the syringe but then he feels the tingling sensation move away from his shoulder and how it travels back down through his arm. Again it wasn’t like the feeling he had after the injection, this was a warm kind of fuzzy feeling.

“Men.” Lankly says, gaining Tim’s attention, he looks up to see a somewhat evil smirk on the man’s face. “I believe that Experiment 56 is a success.”

Tim feels his heart stop and his stomach drop. _What on earth have they done to him?_


	3. A New Development and The Escape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tim starts to deal with what has happened to him, and then proceeds to make his great escape.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So trying to write how the powers work, is proving to be a little difficult but I am managing, so I apologise if it seems everywhere but just bare with me on this as it should hopefully get better as the story goes on.

Telekinesis. That’s what he’s developed. Telekinesis. He has the power to move things with his mind. Two days after the incident in the chair room, when the syringe had smashed, Tim is still in denial. There’s no way he can have a super power. He isn’t a meta-human, doesn’t even have the meta-gene in his body and he knows that because he and Bruce has run tests before and have confirmed he doesn’t have that particular gene.

By the third day after the incident he’s come to accept it, even if he doesn’t like it he’s come to terms with it. He would actually be pretty excited that he now has powers if he wasn’t worrying so much about what Bruce would say. When he returns back will Bruce even let him back into the manner? Will Batman kick Robin out of Gotham for having powers? Will Batman disown Robin like Bruce will probably disown Tim?

For once Tim is completely lost for what he should do, he wants to try and hide his powers from the Bat but that’s the thing, no one can hide anything from him because he’s the world’s greatest detective! He’s going to work it out and then continue to get rid of him. Tim probably could hide this from him but with how the last four days have gone, he’s got no chance at hiding something this big.

Tim has learned that he is terrible at controlling this telekinesis. He has no control over it what so ever. It’s one of them things that apparently he can’t just turn off and on, like it happens when he doesn’t want it to and then when he does want it to happen it doesn’t. He’s guessing that getting pressured into using these new found powers isn’t helping either. The three men keep telling him to do stuff with his powers, they hold up different objects for him to try and move and they continuously lock him in the chair and tell him to undo all the restraints. When Tim doesn’t do what they wanted him to, they simply get frustrated and end up locking him in his cell for a few hours and then proceed to try again.

After working out what he’s developed mostly everything else became clear. The tingling sensation he’s been feeling all over his skin, why that first time the needle couldn’t get to his skin, the particular feeling in his finger tips and the warmth throughout his body. It’s a layer of TK surrounding him, it gives him some kind of shell like a layer of protection but again that is something he can’t always control, sometimes it's there then it disappears a moment later only to reappear an hour later or something.

However, the only thing that still doesn’t make sense to him is the injections. It’s obvious that the substance they injected him with has given him these powers, but that's the bit that’s confusing Tim, what had they injected him with to give them these powers. Is it permanent? Is it only temporarily? None of it makes sense to him and how it could work scientifically. He even asked the men what they injected him with multiple times but he never gets given an answer.

It's coming to the end of the third week of his capture now and Tim knows he needs to make his escape soon. Maybe with his new found powers he could make that escape, but it would be so much easier if he had full control of them. His lack of control over them has made himself become a liability to his own mission, as much as that frustrates him he’s just going to have to make do with it. He needs to escape now, not seeing any of his friends or family is really getting to him, at this point he wouldn’t actually mind in getting one of Dick’s bear hugs just because he’s missing the man. Though he’ll never admit that to the man’s face.

Unlike every other mission he goes on, this time he doesn’t create a plan. He’s just going to wing it and hope for the best. He’s sure Jason would be proud of him for attempting this, the man does nothing but wing everything he does and somehow manages to walk away mostly unscathed most of the time, lucky bastard. The last time Tim attempted something without a plan he ended up out of commission for a month due to a bad concussion, a sprained wrist and a dislocated shoulder. Right now he’s fed up of this place and wants to get out whatever the costs.

Five days after he developed his powers Tim attempts his escape. He had been waiting for his captors to trust that he wouldn’t run away every chance he got, it had taken a while but he got them there in the end. He waits for them to come get him and then to start taking him to the chair room. After a few steps away from the room Tim abruptly drops limp in Blondie’s and Trash’s arms. They drop him to the floor in surprise and Tim just lays limp with his eyes closed, he works on keeping his breathing slow and even. He feels one of the men rest a couple of fingers to his neck checking his pulse, after a minute they speak up.

“Go get Dr. Book. I have no idea what’s wrong.”

Tim hears one of the men walk away but is completely aware of the other hovering around him. Waiting a few more seconds until he’s sure the other man has disappeared Tim jumps up from the floor and tackles the man around him. The element of surprise is Tim’s main advantage in overpowering the man. He knocks him unconscious and then leaves him down on the floor.

Tim quickly leaves and walks in the opposite direction from where the other man just went. From his time here Tim has a brief idea of what this place is laid out like. If he’s correct it isn’t a very big place, so hopefully he can find his way out of here quickly before anyone comes after him. He remembers that earlier in the week he had heard the sounds of engines, if he can find a car or any vehicle he can make his way out of wherever the hell he is.  

Tim makes his way around the building without bumping into anyone surprisingly. He comes up to a fire exit door in the middle of a corridor he’s currently in. He hesitates for a moment, as soon as he pushes this door open it will most likely set an alarm off which means he’ll have to been quick to run where he could potentially hide or to a vehicle. Plus there’s the whole thing that he doesn’t even know what’s beyond this door.

Taking a deep breath he quickly opens the door and then slams it shut. Pushing away from the door he starts to run away from the building. He quickly scans his surroundings to find that he’s run into a small car park. Not wasting anytime he runs to the nearest car which was about 15 feet from the door he came through. While running he’s aware that he is barefoot and is running on stony concrete but doesn’t really pay any attention to it, he’s also aware that it seems to be a nice hot summer’s day but again doesn’t pay any attention to it. Getting to that car takes priority.

He reaches it and sees that it's a black Toyota GT86. Tim wasn’t really a person who’s into cars, within the family it's always been Jason who’s been the car geek, but he knows a good car when he sees one. He only feels mildly bad for breaking into and stealing this car.

Using his elbow he smashes the driver’s side window and unlocks the door. His TK protection layer must be active because he doesn’t get any scratches on his elbow or arm as the window smashes, he doesn’t really feel it either. He scrambles into the car and slams the door shut. Tim then frantically searches the car to see if he can find a spare key. When he finds one in the glove compartment he silently thanks the lord and proceeds to start up the car.

In front of him he sees the fire exit door get wrenched open and then multiple people stumble out of it, all their heads turning side to side clearly looking for him. In the car he smirks as he reeves the engine and gains the attention of everyone at the door. He pulls out of the cars parking space and towards the people by the door and he makes a show of drifting past them in a large arc, as he drifts by them he lets go of the stirring wheel with one hand and mocks salute them. He then takes a quick moment to change gears before speeding away. If it's anything by the loud screeching noise of the wheels, Tim’s pretty sure he left some lovely skid marks behind in his departure.

He follows the car park around before finding the exit and as he leaves and enters a clear road. Choosing a random direction he turns and continues down it before shifting the gears once again and taking off at a high speed.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So scientifically I have no idea how this would actually work haha, but it's called Fanfiction for a reason right? So let's all pretend that it does work for the sake of the story.   
> I will come up with some sort of explanation on how this "works" at a later stage in the story.


	4. Back To Gotham

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Enter the Batfam!

It takes well over half an hour before Tim relaxes back in the driver’s seat. They managed to catch up with him quite early on and it took 10 minutes for Tim to lose them through different country lanes and towns and villages. Tim had stopped in one small town and traded the Toyota for a sliver Ford Focus. He was slightly disappointed that he had to get rid of the Toyota but knew it was necessary. He had made a deal with a car store owner and they traded the cars. Granted it took a bit of persuasion on Tim’s behalf but the owner eventually agreed and Tim was on his way once again.

It's been 40 minutes since he last saw any sign of the people who held him captive. So relaxing back in the seat Tim now takes notice of different things. He rolls down cars windows and takes a deep breath of fresh air, something he hasn’t had for about three weeks. For once he’s even enjoying the sunshine that's surrounding him and the warmth it's providing.

He still notices how his skin feels tingly and how it's still more prominent at his finger tips. Luckily his powers didn’t show up during his escape or that could have not ended well. Thinking back to the escape he becomes annoyed at himself for not thinking about playing possum sooner, like within the first week of his capture. At the end of the day at least he got out and is now heading home.

Now he’s dwelling on the idea of returning back to Gotham, back to Batman. He’s now got powers. If he tells Batman about his TK there’s a really high risk that he’s going to kick Tim out of the Manor, fire him from Robin and stop him from working with the Titans. If he doesn’t tell Batman about the powers then surely he can go on like nothing had happened, lie his way out. He’s lied to Batman before and gotten away with it so surely he could do it again. Tim shakes his head, he’ll deal with that when it comes to it. For now he pays attention to the road.

It's another 15 minutes until Tim comes across a sign which gives him a clear indication of where he is. Apparently Blüdhaven is only 5 miles away. He figures if he gets to Blüdhaven he can then easily navigate his way back to Gotham.

It takes him a further 25 minutes to reach Blüdhaven and then another hour to Gotham. He can’t help but feel relieved when he enters Gotham city limits. It feels good to be back somewhere he knows like the back of his hand. It's heading towards late evening as he drives his way through the city towards Wayne Manor, meaning that hopefully he can catch everyone before they go off to patrol. But as his excitement grows to see everyone so does his worry.

Before he knows it he’s pulling up at Wayne Manor gate. Leaning through the window he presses on the buzzer and patiently waits. He doesn’t have to wait long as a familiar British accent is speaking through the speaker.

“Master Wayne isn’t expecting anyone over tonight-”

Tim cuts off Alfred’s talking. “Alfred it’s me. It's Tim. Could you let me in please?”

“Master Tim! Is it really you?” Alfred exclaims over the speaker.

Tim allows himself to smile. “Yeah Al, it’s really me. I promise.”

In front of him the gates open and Tim immediately starts up the car and pulls through them, he drives up to the front of the Manor and stops. Greeting him at the stairs is the old faithful family butler. Tim didn’t realise how much he actually missed Alfred until he saw the man standing there. Getting out of the car Tim is immediately enveloped by a pair of arms. Wasting no time at all Tim wraps his arms around Alfred in a warm embrace. Alfred pulls away first and gets a good look at Tim.

“It is good to see you Master Tim. It certainly has been different around here without you.”

Tim interprets that as _I missed you and so has the family, they’ve been going nuts in trying to find where you had disappeared to._ He can’t help that warm feeling inside of him to come by as he realises that his presence was missed.

“Thank you Alfred, it’s good to be back. Where is everyone else, are they around?” He asks him.

What he loves most about Alfred is that the old man doesn’t ask questions, he just leaves you be until you’re ready to talk by yourself. Tim assures himself that Alfred will hear his story at the same time the others do.

Alfred sends him a warm smile. “They are all going through their nightly businesses, I’m sure if we head to them now we can catch them all before they call it a night.”

_They’re getting ready for patrol._

Tim nods and starts to head up the stairs with Alfred closely on his heels. He hesitates just before entering the door and that doesn’t go unnoticed by Alfred.

“Are you alright Master Tim?” He asks him.

Tim turns to him before nodding, giving him a smile small he says “Yeah, just fine Alfred. Glad to be back.”

Alfred then takes the lead in the Manor and Tim follows. They silently make their way to the kitchen and Tim can’t help but let himself relax slightly at the familiar surroundings. In the kitchen Alfred picks up a large plate full of sandwiches which he has obviously just made for post patrol snacks. Tim can’t help himself and takes one. Alfred just smiles at him before moving to leave the kitchen.

Tim finishes the sandwich before they make it to the clock in the study. They do the usual routine before it opens up and reveals a stair way. One by one they descend down the staircase and into the cave. Walking down Tim immediately spots Bruce at the computer, he’s wearing the Batman suit with the cowl down. He spots Dick on the mats going through basic warm up stretches and he’s in full Nightwing costume. He doesn’t spot Jason around anywhere.

Both men are oblivious to their entrance, so when they reach the bottom of the staircase Alfred calls out. “Master Bruce, I am happy to say that something grand has happened tonight.”

The response Alfred gets is nothing more than a grunt and the sound of clicking from the keyboard.

“Master Bruce if you would be so kind as to turn around you would know what I mean.”

Bruce again doesn’t react he just keeps on typing away at the computer, however it’s Dick to react first. He looks up from the mats towards Alfred and gasps at what he sees. “Oh my god.”

Seeming to hear Dick’s gasp, Bruce does turn around and freezes when he sees them.

“Tim?” The man asks quietly in disbelief.

“Timmy!” The other voice exclaims and Tim has no warning before he’s enclosed in a pair of arms that wrap tightly around his waist. “Oh my god you’re okay! I missed you so much little brother!”

As Dick squeezes the life out of Tim, Tim somehow manages to get an arm free and pats Dick’s arm. “Missed you to Dick.” He says breathlessly. “But your kind of killing me here... I need to breathe.”

Dick looks sheepish as he lets go of Tim, but keeps an arm around his shoulders and pulls him close into his side. Tim doesn’t mind the contact at all, he surprisingly has missed it.

“Where have you been? We’ve been looking everywhere for you! We’ve been searching nonstop when we couldn’t find you or get in contact with you at all.”

Alfred must have seen Tim’s distress because he’s calling out. “Master Dick if you would be so kind and let Master Tim gather his own thoughts, he’ll tell us when he’s ready.”

Tim can’t help but think that’s more of a jab at Bruce rather than Dick but he’s grateful to the elder for getting Dick to shut up. Tim peels away from Dick’s side to stand and face Bruce, who has gotten up away from the computer and approached the group.

“Hey Bruce.” Tim greets him quietly; he tries to ignore the bad feeling in his gut as he faces the man.

Bruce doesn’t say anything but does step towards Tim and then embraces in a large hug. Tim wraps his arms around him and just takes in the scent of his adoptive father and even the smell of kevlar is somewhat soothing. Tim breaks the hug first and pulls away, though Bruce keeps a hand on his shoulder. Tim does his best not to shift around under the gaze of his mentor as he studies him.

Bruce then gives him a soft smile. “It’s good to see you. You okay?”

Tim nods. “I’m fine. It’s just been a long day that’s all.”

Bruce nods in understanding before getting a serious look on his face. “Tim, I will give you tonight but then tomorrow I want to know what exactly happened alright.”

Tim doesn’t say anything but nods, he kind of doesn’t expect anything else from Bruce really. He’s kind of surprised that he isn’t demanding him for answers right now, but that’s most likely because Alfred’s here.

From his spot Dick looks over at Bruce. “You don’t need me tonight do you?”

Bruce gives him a questioning glance.

“Timmy and I have a bit of catching up to do! In other words we’re going to have a movie marathon.” Dick once again wraps his arm around Tim and gives him a squeeze.

Bruce gives Dick an incredulous look. “Perhaps you should let him rest tonight instead.”

Dick just shakes his head. “No can do Bruce, he missed out on movie night the other week so he has to make up for it. Besides he can relax while we watch the films.” He turns to face Tim, putting his hands on his shoulders. “Right Timmy give me 10 minutes to change and call up Jay, cause he’s gonna want to be here, then we can go chill.”

“Uh-“

“Great!” Dick then releases his shoulders and more or less bounces his way to the changing rooms.

Bruce just shakes his head at his eldest’s childish antics, before turning to his youngest. “Why don’t you get changed, I’ll talk to you tomorrow okay.”

Tim nods in agreement, but before he could stop himself he found himself saying. “You could always join us you know.”

Bruce just stares at Tim for a minute and Tim fight the urge to fidget under his gaze, but behind the calculating gaze Bruce is giving him he can tell that he’s at least considering the option.

“I doubt it Tim, I need to let everyone know you’re back and to call off the searches. There are still some case files I need to look over.”

Tim tries not to show his disappointment. “That’s fine, Bruce I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

Tim then turns to go back upstairs, on his way up he can hear the distinctive sounds of both Bruce and Alfred talking.


	5. Brotherly Bonding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tim gets some chill time with his big brothers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will not be writing Damian in this story, so as it goes Tim is Robin. Also in this story Jason is close with the family, well as close as he can get really, but he gets along with them. Especially Tim. 
> 
> I apologise if any characters seem really off, I am trying please don't kill me, but enjoy the story. :)

Tim is more than relieved to be back in his own clothing, and to have a nice shower. He puts on his red hoodie and some black trackie bottoms on. The feeling of being in his own room is refreshing and puts him at ease. However he can’t help but still feel tense at the same time because of the thought of his powers.

Just now there were two incidents in the shower, the first was for some reason the protection layer over him repelled the water from actually hitting his skin, it took him a few minutes to try and get rid of that layer. The second was when he went to put down the shampoo bottle, it had accidently slipped from his hand so when he went to catch it he somehow accidently blasted it away from him instead, and it ended up on the other side of the bathroom. He had managed to chuck the bottle away with his TK instead of grabbing it. That alone just confused the hell out of Tim. Thankfully he was on his own and no one witnessed it.

Trying to keep his nerves down Tim heads down to the family room where he finds it all set up with blankets, food and drink. Dick gets up from the TV and moves to the couch, spotting Tim in the door way he makes a beckoning motion and plops down on the couch.

“Come on Baby Bird, this is long overdue.”

Tim doesn’t make any comments as he moves to the couch and sits down on the soft cushions, though secretly he is very grateful for the fact that Dick is doing all this. Before Tim could settle himself properly Dick reaches out and drags him along so he’s leaning against the older man. Tim doesn’t fight it and just accepts it, knowing that once Dick has you in his arms there isn’t really anyway from escaping him.

“Jaybird will be here in an hour or two, said he’s just gotta finish something up then he’ll be around.” Dick tells him, Tim nods. “In the mean time let’s enjoy a bit of Mission Impossible.”

“What, no Disney tonight then?” Tim can’t help but ask smiling slightly.

Smiling brightly back, Dick tells him. “Na, not really feeling up to Disney tonight. Maybe next time if you really want it.”

Tim just shakes his head. “No thanks, I’m good, that stuff is just childish.”

Dick gasps and feigns hurt. “How could you say that Timmy!”

Tim just laughs softly. “Whatever Dick.” He then turns to the screen as the theme tune starts to play.

They’re half way through the second film when Jason comes strolling in. “Wow you weren’t actually joking either.” The two couch occupants turn to see him standing in the door way.

Tim smiles at seeing his brother. “Jay!”

“Baby Bird it’s good to see you alive and not amongst the dead.” Jason declares coming up to the couch. When he gets close enough he lightly smacks the back of Tim’s head, which earns him a scowl from the younger boy.

“What was that for?” He demands rubbing where he’d been hit.

Walking around the couch Jason tells him. “That was for leaving me alone with this muppet for three weeks. How could you do that to me Timbers huh?”

Tim just rolls his eyes, it wasn’t like he did it on purpose. Jason then proceeds to make himself comfortable on the other end of the couch, he then reaches over Tim and drags him so he’s now leaning against the other man. Tim catches the dirty look Dick gives Jason and in return he sees Jason give Dick a half hearted glare. “You’ve had your turn it's now mine.” Dick childishly sticks his tongue out at Jason as he grabs Tim’s feet and places them on his lap.

Tim just lets them manhandle him around, he’s not going to admit it out loud but he’s enjoying the contact with them. After not seeing them for weeks it felt nice, he felt safe and secure between them both. The three of them then settle down and watch the movie that’s playing on.

At the start of the third movie the trio are greeted with Bruce’s presence. Bruce, now in a cotton t-shirt and trackies like the rest of them, silently makes his way over to the love seat just to the right of the couch. Both Dick and Tim smile at his presence and Jason just ignores him in favour of the movie.

It happens during the fourth movie. At some point, most likely when he dozed off during the film, he had somehow been cocooned in one of the blankets. When he wakes back up, halfway through fourth movie, he feels extremely hot, like the sweaty sticky kind of hot. He notices that his arms are basically pinned to his sides because of how Jason is hugging him, there was something about seeing the older man comfy and relaxed that Tim didn’t want to disturb it. So for now he just put up with the blanket around him.

A minute or so later he starts to feel the blanket move around his hips, looking down he can see that the blanket is beginning to rise up and is starting to move away from underneath him. Knowing it wasn’t him causing the blanket to move, he looks at Jason to see in him engrossed in the film and not paying him any attention at all but also Jason’s arms are up around Tim’s chest so it's defiantly not him moving the blanket. Tim looks over at Dick to see that he too was engrossed within the film and paying Tim no attention, his arms were supporting his own head and was wrapped around Tim’s ankles. He looks over at Bruce to see him surprisingly into the film as well.

The sudden jerk up of the blanket from around his middle causes Tim to abruptly jerk up at the same time. It’s just then he realises that his TK was taking off the blanket and dammit, he should have made the connection earlier. His sudden action gains the attention of everyone else in the room.

“Woah!”

“Tim!”

Tim quickly sits on the edge of the seat and chucks away the blanket, he ignores the stares from his family.

“You okay Tim?” Dick asks worriedly.

Tim just nods. “Fine Dick.” He notices that his own voice was tight as he spoke. He could feel the disbelieving look that the man was giving on the side of his head.

Tim leans back into the couch, being careful in touching neither Dick nor Jason. He gives them all a quick glance before looking at the TV. “Guys I’m fine, something just made me jump that’s all.” He ignores their stares as he watches the TV, though he can very well feel them. Dick’s worried stare and he can tell that man wants to crush him in a hug, thankfully he doesn’t. Jason’s narrow almost glare stare and then Bruce’s curious stare.

_That was too close. Great now they’re all suspicious of him,_ he thinks to himself. He would have no idea how he could have explained what happened if they were paying attention to him and what happened.

Thankfully nothing else happens for the rest of the night.


	6. The Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bruce has his talk with Tim.

They all ended up staying on couch for the rest of the night, all of them falling asleep at different stages. So Tim wasn’t surprised when he woke up covered in limbs from both of his brothers. He looks around to find that the TV was turned off and all the snacks and drinks have been cleared up, most likely it was Alfred who did that. He also sees that Bruce is no longer in the room, which doesn’t really surprise him, the man had probably left when the three of them were knocked out.

Getting up, he slowly and carefully untangles himself from his brother’s limbs in order not to wake them. They don’t even stir as Tim gets off the couch. Looking back at them he notices that they both look a lot younger when their faces are relaxed, sadly he doesn’t see it when they’re awake. He did notice the blackness underneath both of the older men’s eyes yesterday, it easily tells them that his brothers had been running themselves on fumes over the last couple of days, whether that’s because they were looking for him or just because of patrol and civilian duties he has no idea.

It really shouldn’t but that thought that they were looking for him on their own fumes gives Tim a warm feeling. It shows him that they do care about him and they did miss him while he was gone. It makes Tim rethink about not telling them that he has powers, if they spent all that time possibly searching for him surely that shows they love him right, so surely they’d still love him if he tells them he has powers. But it wasn’t his brothers that Tim’s worried about, okay maybe he’s worried about them a little, but it's Bruce he’s nervous about. If he tells him he might just end up kicking him out and Tim really doesn’t want that to happen. Tim shakes his head, deciding that he’s just going to keep quiet about it. There’s no point taking that risk.

Tim leaves the room and heads up to his own. He climbs into the shower and cleans himself up. He takes a lot longer than usual, he missed having showers and the water felt so nice on his skin. As nice as it was Tim couldn’t let himself fully relax, he’s still paranoid that his TK is just going to play up. It was a close call yesterday during the movie but his behaviour had raised a few eyebrows. He’s just got to try and keep better control of it he guesses, which is a lot harder than said.

Tim gets out of the shower and gets changed into some worn jeans and a loose t-shirt, he’s not planning anything today so why bother to be presentable. He makes his way down to the kitchen where he finds Alfred at the oven and Bruce sat at the table with a mug in his hand and leaning over a newspaper.

Alfred greets him first. “Good morning Master Tim, I hope that you slept well last night?”

Tim smiles back at him as he sits down at the table. “Morning Alfred and yeah thanks I did, though I woke up basically crushed between Jason and Dick.”

Alfred smiles and nods, like he already knew that fact. Alfred moves from the oven and hands a plate of pancakes with raspberries and raspberry sauce over them. “Here we are Master Tim, enjoy.”

Tim takes the plate and nods back, “Thanks Al, it looks great.” And smells great too, god Tim’s missed the elder man’s cooking.

Tim’s half way through his meal when both Jason and Dick stumble in, they both looked like a mess. Hair sticking up in all angles and their clothes are all covered in wrinkles. Once again Alfred greets them first. “Good Morning Master Dick, Master Jason. I assume that you’re both ready for some food.”

As they both plonk down at the table, Jason to Tim’s right and Dick opposite him, they both eagerly nod. Soon enough they both get their plates of pancakes, Dick drowns his in syrup and Jason goes simple with lemon and sugar.

The kitchen stays quiet as they all work their way through their foods, that is until Bruce puts his mug down on the table with a little more force than necessary, it creates a bang and gains the attention of everyone else in the room. They all look at Bruce expectantly.

“Tim.” He looks at the boy. “We need to discuss on what happened, weather you want to do it up here or down in the cave is up to you but we do need to have that talk.” He tells him.

From where he’s sat looking at Bruce, Tim can feel the eyes of his brothers on him. Tim looks down at his plate to find it empty and then he silently curses the man, he probably waited till Tim was done so he couldn’t shove food I his mouth to avoid answering.

“Yeah I know.” Tim says quietly still looking at his plate. He thinks about where he should do it and quickly makes up his mind. “We can do it down in the cave.” He tells the man quietly, dreading every moment that’s about to come.

Bruce just nods at his youngest. “Okay, I’ll be down there and expect you down in half an hour.”

The man then gets up and leaves the table. As soon as he’s out of the room Jason speaks up. “You okay there Timbo?”

Tim looks up at him and gives him a small fake smile. “Fine.” _Absolutely not fine._ “It’s got to be done Jay, the sooner the better right?” The look on the man’s face tells Tim that Jason isn’t buying it, though before anymore could be said Tim gets up from the table and leaves the kitchen.

Well now he’s got half an hour to get himself worked up about what’s going to happen down in the cave. He chose the cave because it was Robin that got captured and not Tim Drake. Robin screwed up and not Tim, how that really makes any sense is any ones guess, though it's really more that Tim’s trying to console himself before he has to face it. He has the sudden urge to get into costume to face this, Robin can put a mask on his face and devoid any emotions that Tim may show. He decides to see what Bruce does, if he goes down to the cave and finds Batman, he’ll go and become Robin but if he finds him just as Bruce then he’ll face the Man as Tim Drake. For some reason the thought of speaking to Batman right now just seems a lot easier than talking to Bruce Tim decides.

The half an hour goes by and Tim trudges to the cave and to his despair he finds Bruce and not Batman. Jason and Dick are there as well, both looking more alive than they were at breakfast, and that really doesn’t surprise Tim. Jason occupies the chair to Bruce’s left while Dick is sat on top of the desktop to Bruce’s right. Tim makes his way over to the trio slowly, dreading every step closer to them. He tries to keep his breathing under control but it’s difficult because all he can think about is how his heart is heavily pounding away in his chest.

Jason spots him first and gets up out of the chair and then mirrors Dick’s position on the desktop just to the left. Getting the hint Tim sinks down into the chair but stays on the edge of it, he feels the need to keep his feet firmly flat on the ground.

Not looking at him Bruce demands. “Tell me what happened that night.”

Tim tries not to wince at the tone. Settling his gaze on his hands in his lap Tim tells him. “While you were away on League business I had been following up a drug dealer and his cartel. I had been following up on my leads double checking that they were correct before I went out to stop them.”

_He spent two solid days tracking and researching up the gang and the dealer himself. He lived off of caffeine and no sleep._

“The night I went out to bust them.... I wasn’t my best...” He reluctantly says. “I shouldn’t have really gone out, but I did. On my way to stopping the drugs down by the pier I came across a couple of thugs, so I intervened with what they were doing but it turns out that they were more than just thugs. Their agility and skill they fought against me was very precise that they were obviously trained by someone. They caught me off guard and rendered me unconscious ... I then woke up not knowing where I was.”

“Why did they catch you off guard? You’re a very skilled fighter in hand to hand combat, why did they beat you?” Bruce’s voice spoke out to him. The man wasn’t happy in the slightest.

Tim suddenly felt like a naughty little kid in school who is being told off by his teacher by being made to admit his mistakes and what he had done wrong. Keeping his gaze on his hands Tim slowly lets out a quiet reply. “Because I was sleep deprived and drugged up on caffeine, therefore not at my best.”

Bruce must take the quiet submission because he moves the conversation on with his next question.

“Where were you when you woke up?”                                    

“I don’t know.” He admits.

“You don’t know?” Bruce questions with a suppressed voice, like he’s trying to keep his anger under control.

“No sir. I never found out the name of where I was held captive.”

As he plays with his hands he can feel the tingling sensation in them. He just hopes that nothing happens while he’s down here.

“How did you escape?”

“I escaped through the fire exit of the building and then stole a car from the parking lot. I drove through a load of country lanes to lose them off my tail. Once I did I traded that car for another in a small town, from there I drove straight to here.”

Unexpectedly Jason pipes up from where he’s sat. “What car did you steal?”

“Jason!” Dick calls over to him in a disapproving tone.

Jason just sends him a look. “What? I’m just asking.”

Tim looks up to see Dick and Jason having some sort of stare off, he then makes the mistake of looking at Bruce. The man is staring at him with a hard expression and Tim fights off the urge to curl up into a ball on the chair. Instead he looks back down to his hands.

“Tim, Look at me.” Bruce demands him in his Batman voice.

Being accustomed to obeying that voice as Robin, Tim immediately obeys and he has to fight off a flinch when he meets Bruce’s eyes. Bruce is still giving him that hard look.

“What happened during them three weeks Tim?” He asks the question Tim feared the most. Tim feels his stomach drop and his heart basically stop.

“I ... uh... what happened ...was that...” Tim found himself not even being able to answer the question.

Easily picking up his discomfort Dick, thankfully, interjected. “I think that’s enough for today Bruce. He’ll talk when he’s ready to.”

Bruce just holds his hand up to stop Dick from talking. “No Dick, we need to know where he was and what had actually happened.”

Seeing that Bruce was getting really frustrated he found himself rambling, out of desperation more than anything else. “Bruce I’m sorry. I really am. I did try to escape but they just kept over powering me, they kept drugging me so I couldn’t fight them as well as I could. It wasn’t like-”

Jason cuts his rambling off. “Easy Baby Bird, no one is accusing you that you didn’t try alright.” Standing up the man puts a hand on the teens shoulder, but Tim couldn’t stop himself from jumping at the contact.

Jason’s eyes immediately narrow at the action. Turning to glare at Bruce Jason tells the man. “That’s it for today. No more.” His tone leaves no room for argument and its times like this that Tim suddenly remembers how overprotective the older man could be.

Tim suddenly feels hands under his shoulder and then he’s being picked up off the chair.

“Come on Tim, we’re going to go chill for a bit.” Jason tells him, as he’s placed back down on the floor. If he wasn’t as freaked out as he was at the way the conversation went he would have been embarrassed about how easily Jason just picked him up and moved him around.

The next thing Tim knows is Jason leading him up the cave’s stairs and back into the Manor with an arm wrapped around his shoulders. Tim tries to push the arm off him but it only gets tighter at his attempt.

He has no idea where Jason is leading him to but silently goes along with him, that’s until they come up to near their bedrooms. Tim once again pushes at Jason’s arm around his shoulders.

“Jason you can let me go now.” He tells him.

Again the older man just holds onto him tighter. Now getting annoyed, Tim squirms under the arm trying to once again push it away.

“Seriously Jason let go of me.” He demands.

Jason just seems to ignore him and this just pisses Tim right off. Angrily, Tim grabs Jason’s wrist from around his shoulders and yanks the man’s arm over his head. While holding onto the limb he twists around and pushes against Jason’s chest.

He only pushed his brother hard enough to back him up a few steps, he didn’t mean for it to happen.

As Tim pushed on Jason’s chest, he felt the tingling sensation in his fingers suddenly cover his entire palms and without meaning to he sent a telekinetic push of energy at Jason. The man went flying backwards a few good feet and only to land in a heap on the floor. Tim just stands with his hands stretched out in shock as Jason scrambles into a sitting position. On the floor Jason eyes are wide as he looks at Tim in the mix of shock, horror and bewilderment.

The silence between the two only lasts for a couple of minutes but to the two of them it feels like forever.

Tim breaks it. “J-J-Jay... I- I didn’t... Please, I – I didn’t...” His voice is extremely shaky as he tries to form a sentence to his brother who is still on the floor. _He didn’t mean to do that! This was not meant to happen! Not like this! Oh god what’s he going to do?! What happens now? God Jason is going to hate him!_

To busy freaking out Tim doesn’t even notice that Jason had gotten up off the floor and had slowly approached him. He doesn’t even realise that the man was right next to him until a hand comes into contact with his shoulder. Jerking at the touch Tim whips his head to face Jason, eyes wide and full of fear at what Jason is going to do or what he’s going to say.

Jason’s facial expression has changed to looking somewhere in between concern and wariness.

“Tim.” Jason starts to speak slowly, gaining the younger’s attention. “I need you to focus on your breathing. Can you do that for me?”

Tim then only realises that he’s nearly hyperventilating.

“Baby Bird I need you to listen to me okay.”

Tim just shakes his head. No he doesn’t want to listen to him, he doesn’t want to hear them words. _Jason found out! How could he let him find out! Now Jason’s going to go tell Dick and Bruce and they’ll kick him out! He doesn’t have anywhere else he can go! Oh god, oh god, oh god!_

“Tim! Listen to my voice. You need to calm down okay.”

Tim just absently shakes his head again, too caught up with his panic to listen to the man trying to help him.

“Tim please! Listen to me!” Jason is now begging at his younger brother, he has no idea what’s wrong with him.

Tim turns his head and looks at Jason, he can see that Jason’s mouth is moving but he can’t hear any words coming out. That’s when suddenly he feels weightless and his vision goes completely dark.


	7. Talk Number Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason and Tim have a nice chat which may or may not evolve a bit of brotherly bonding and a bit of fluff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was actually a lot of fun to write, I liked writing the interaction between them both. It is just brotherly love! no slash is involved.
> 
> Age wise for characters I would say is -  
> Tim maybe 15/16  
> Jason 19/20  
> Dick early/mid twenties

The first thing Tim sees when he opens his eyes is Jason’s face above his. The man’s eyebrows were bunched together, his blue eyes are narrow and lips pressed into a fine line. It takes him a few seconds to realise that Jason is talking to him.

“- with me Tim. Yo Timmers wake up. That’s come back to me.”

“Jason?” Tim asks blinking up at him. “What happened?”

“You passed out on me kid, that’s what.”

Tim realises that they’re not in the corridor anymore but in a room, Jason’s second bedroom to be more pacific (he still refuses to go in his original room). He’s laying on the plush bed with Jason leaning over him.

“Do you remember what happened Tim?” His brother asks him warily.

Tim thinks back but upon remembering he shoots right up into a sitting position and if it weren’t for his fast reflexes Jason would have ended up with a busted nose. Tim clutches his head in panic. “Jason I’m sorry! You can’t tell him! Please don’t tell! Oh my god you weren’t meant to find out. What am I going to do? This is a disaster!”

“Tim. Tim! TIM!” Jason repeats until he gets his brother’s attention. Big blue eyes turn to him and Jason grabs his shoulders. “Tim listen to me, I’m not going to say anything okay, it’s just between you and me. Right now I need you to breathe and not pass out on me again. Gave me a pretty good scare there kid.”

Tim looks away and starts to take shaky breaths. “Okay, okay....” After a minute or two he has himself composed. “Jason look-”

Jason grips his shoulders tighter. “No you look Tim, something happened out there. I won’t tell Bruce if that’s what you’re freaking out about, which is perfectly understandable, but I’m not Bruce. You can talk to me Baby Bird, tell me what’s going on, it's easy to guess that whatever it is it happened in them three weeks you were missing.”

Tim pushes Jason’s hands off his shoulders, this time the man easily complies, and pushes himself back so he’s leaning against the head board. He tucks his knees to his chest and wraps his arms around them, trying to make himself as small as possible.

“Yeah. It happened during them three weeks.” He admits quietly, still not looking at Jason. “I did try to fight them off Jay, you gotta believe me. I didn’t ask for them.”

He feels Jason shift around on the bed, eventually he settles up against the headboard next to Tim. “I believe you Tim okay and I’m sure you did try to fight your way out.” He pauses and looks at the younger man with an expression of protectiveness and concern. “What is it that you have?”

“Telekinesis.” Tim mutters before burying his head in his arms.

“Telekinesis.” Jason parrots. He then gently asks “Mind telling me what happened, how this happened?” Seeing the smaller body tense up he quickly adds “I promise I won’t say anything to Bruce.”

Tim thinks about it for a moment, but then looks up at the older man who he has now come to think as a brother. Starting to feel tears form in his eyes he looks away. “He’s going to kick me out Jace. Gonna fire me from Robin.” He whispers. He feels the tears starting to fall down his face as he once again buries his head in his arms. He can’t help the sob that breaks through.

He feels the bed shift and then feels hands trying to separate his arms to get to his head. Tim tries to curl up tighter but the hands are stronger and break up his ball. Large hands then cup his face, gently but firmly they force his head up. “Baby Bird look at me.”

Tim meets Jason’s eyes once more. He feels Jason’s thumb run over his cheeks and wipe away the tears.

Jason laughs softly “He’s not going to kick you out. Thinking a little irrational there Timbo. Is that what you’re worked up so much about?”

“He hates meta’s Jay! As soon as he finds out he’ll fire me from Robin and then exile me from Gotham. I don’t have anywhere else to go!” Tim exclaims as more tears run down his face.

Letting go of his face Jason pulls Tim on to his lap and wraps his arms around the smaller frame and settles his chin on top of Tim’s head. “Are these powers permanent?”

“Jay he’s going to find out, what-”

“We’ll deal with that bridge in a minute alright. Now answer this question, are your powers permanent?”

Tim shrugs before mumbling “I don’t know.”

“Okay no worries, can you tell me how long you’ve had these powers.”

“About a week.”

“I’m guessing by the show we had earlier that you don’t have much control over them yet then do you?”

Tim immediately tenses up at the question. “Jay I am SO sorry I did that to you please don’t hate me, I am trying -”

Tim’s panicked rambling was cut off as Jason slapped one of his hands over his mouth, effectively shutting him up. Jason let out a sigh. “Tim listen to me alright. We will work this out. I know you didn’t mean to blast me and I forgive you, it just gave me a shock - well a massive shock - that’s all, but it does explain why you freaked out in the cave earlier. I will not tell Bruce that you have these powers until you’re ready okay.”

He pauses to let Tim sink that in before continuing a short moment after.

“I’m going to take my hand off your mouth and you are not going to spill out any more crap, understand.” He waits for Tim to give a sign that he has actually been listening this whole time. Sure enough he gets a light nod from the boy. “Okay good, from this moment onwards we’ll work something out to help you alright.”

Jason removes his hand from Tim’s mouth. Without any words Tim just turns around in Jason’s lap and wraps his arms around his brother’s neck. Jason returns the hug and they stay like that for a moment before pulling away.

Jason then gives Tim a pointed look. “You okay now, no more freak outs about to happen?”

Tim gives him a small smile. “Yeah, I’m okay and no, no more freak outs at least I don’t think so. Jason I’m sorry – ow!” Tim cries out rubbing his head sending a glare at Jason. “What the hell?”

Jason sends Tim an annoyed look. “Why do you think dumbass? Stop apologising!”

“Okay, okay, I’m so-” Tim manages to stop himself from saying it, especially after seeing Jason raise his hand in a threatening manner.

Jason gives Tim a satisfied look before lowering his hand down. “Good.” He then gets off the bed and stretches.

“Thanks Jay.” Tim says.

“No problem kid, let’s just not have any more sappy moments for a while huh. I think we’ve just had a year’s worth within like two hours.”

Tim rolls his eyes. “Yeah okay, whatever you say Jay.”

Making a shooing Jason says “Okay kid time to skedaddle from my room now, I’ll find you in an hour or so, there’s some things I gotta take care of.”

Tim doesn’t move from the bed.

Jason raises an eyebrow at him. “Any time today would be great Tim.”

Smirking Tim lies down on the bed and sprawls out, doing the complete opposite of what Jason wants. He doesn’t know why, but suddenly he’s feels like being really childish. He’ll just blame it on that he’s been a captive for three weeks.

Jason now gives him a pointed look. “Really? What are you doing.”

“Lying down, what’s it look like I’m doing.”

“You don’t have to use my own bed for that, you’ve got your own.” Jason tells him.

“Yeah but that’s so far away.” Tim whines rolling over to stomach, he glances up and smirks at Jason’s bored look.

“Dude, leave my room.”

“Na, I’m good here thanks.”

“What are you hoping to achieve here?”

“Being an annoying little brother. Is it working?” Tim sends Jason a hopeful smile.

“If I say yes will you leave?”

“Probably not.”

Not helping himself Jason smiles at Tim’s childishness. “Okay I will give you to a count of three to leave my room or there will be consequences.” Jason tries telling him in a stern voice with a straight face, but it doesn’t really work. The teen on the bed stays silent.

“One.”

Tim raises an eyebrow and smirks at him.

“Two.”

Faking a yawn Tim rolls over to his back.

“Three.”

Tim doesn’t move.

“Okay you little bastard, you asked for it now.” With no more warning Jason more or less pounces on the teen on the bed, he quickly straddles him and grabs Tim’s wrists and pin them above his head with one hand. Using his free hand Jason starts to tickle Tim.

Immediately Tim begins to squirm underneath Jason. “No, no, no, no. Okay! I’m sorry! Jason, please don’t!”

Now full on grinning Jason laughs out. “Nuh-uh Timmy, I gave you a fair warning and this is your punishment.” He runs his hand down the teen’s sides and under the arms.

In a matter of seconds Tim has gone bright red and has tears streaming down his face from laughing.

“Please..... Jason... I’ll ... leave...” He somehow forms words in the middle of his giggles. Jason doesn’t relent at all and Tim feels him put more of his own weight down on him, probably to try to stop him from moving as he’s squirming all over the place trying to escape Jason’s hold.

It goes on for a few more minutes and Tim doesn’t think he could take any more when suddenly he starts to feel the tingling sensation build up around his stomach, where Jason’s hands are. Tim tries to warn Jason, tries to get him to stop but he’s laughing so hard that he can barely breathe let alone speak actual words.

Then suddenly Jason’s hands are gone from his sides and his weight disappears off of Tim. Tim tries to quickly recollect himself as he sees Jason on the floor by the bed. Taking deep breaths gets his giggles under control enough to ask his brother if he’s alright. In return Jason laughs lightly and pushes himself onto his knees. He then looks over at Tim and must not like what he sees because he’s immediately scowling.

“No Tim, don’t even bother okay. It was an accident and I know that alright.”

Tim opens his mouth to protest but quickly shuts it after seeing the glare Jason’s sending him.

Standing up Jason says “Okay seriously Tim, this time could you leave please. I promise to come find you in an hour or so.”

Nodding Tim gets off the bed and heads for the door. Jason ruffles his hair as he passes him and Tim scowls playfully at him. As Tim is walking through the door he hears Jason tell him. “It’ll be okay Baby Bird, we’ll work it out.” Sending the older man a smile over his shoulder Tim leaves the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first time attempting to write powers, so I'm still working out how it's still going to go but I think I have a way now, hopefully it all makes sense to everyone. 
> 
> I will not have a regular posting schedule from here on wards, though I am currently really enjoying writing this so it will hopefully be updated regularly and hopefully everyone is enjoying reading it. I will hopefully get more done before I head back to college next week, chances are that I will so just keep an eye out the updates. :)


	8. Options

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tim and Jason discuss different options and decide to try one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just two things. 
> 
> One: In this story Tim and Kon do not like each other (at the start anyway haha). They are they not best friends in this, their relationship is more like a mutual dis-like of one another. They have both known each other for a long time so they do know one another quite well, they respect each other for what they do in the superhero business and can tolerate one another for the team but as far as personality goes they don't really like each other....for now.... 
> 
> Two: I don't fully know Zatanna's character, only what I've read in other fanfics or seen on Young Justice TV show. So I have just gone with what I thought suited her for this story (I apologise now if she is completely out of character). Also I feel like she would actually get along well with each of the Robin's so that's kinda why I included her in this. 
> 
> Enjoy :)

True to his word Jason does find him an hour later. It wasn’t difficult to find him as he didn’t wonder too far away, he just spent the entire time in his room. For most of the hour he was talking to Cassie and Bart on video chat on his laptop. They had been ecstatic to hear from him and to see he was alright. They had talked about what the Titans had been up too in his absence, besides from trying to find their missing leader, apparently there hadn’t been much to do. Bart kept complaining that he bored and wanted to go out and get action while Cassie was just happy with a bit of down time, even if the down did involve a load of stress trying to find their missing friend.

Alfred had stopped by half way through and dropped of some lunch for Tim to eat, and even supplied him with a cup of coffee which Tim was grateful for. It had been so long since he had some that the bitter taste of it actually tasted like heaven for once.

Before ending the call both Cassie and Bart made had him promise to go and personally see them at the tower in a couple of days time, something that Tim was reluctant to do because of his current situation but of course he wasn’t going to tell them that.

When Jason came waltzing into the room Tim had moved onto working on a report for Bruce on what happened during them three weeks, he figured it would be easier to explain what had happened on paper, or screen as he’s actually typing it up rather than writing it. Plus this way he can at least delay the confrontation that Bruce will want to have for a little while longer.

“Right Baby Bird, I’ve been thinking-”

“That’s a first.” Tim quipped at his brother as he turns around to face the man. Jason’s sat lazily on his bed, he’s now wearing jeans, some rock band’s logo on his t-shirt and his trademark civilian leather jacket (it's different to his Red Hood one). After his comment Jason gives him a look that says _really? That’s rude._ Tim just smiles back.

“As I was saying, I’ve been thinking about this situation of yours and what we can do and how to go about it.”

Tim’s smile drops at the mention of his current predicament, but nods to show he was still listening as he turns back round to his desk.

“I’ve decided that we have a few different options here. Number one, we just tell B and deal with everything after.” Tim immediately spins back round to protest but is swiftly cut off by Jason. “Number two, we keep this between ourselves and I help you to control your powers, we can go to one of mine or yours safe house to practise privately. Number three, we go tell someone else what has happened, even though I don’t like the idea of someone else knowing, and try to get them to work on you or something.”

He finishes speaking then looks at Tim expectantly.

“All the points are valid, well except the first one, cause there’s no way we’re doing that.” Tim tells Jason, the man nods his head knowingly at his protest of the first option. “The second one could potentially work, but what do you know about telekinesis? What did you have in mind that could help me, shoot at me and see if I could stop the bullets?” Of course Tim meant it sarcastically but seeing his brother smirk at the mention of it, he then realises that's exactly what he had in mind.

“We are not doing that!” He exclaims.

Jason throws his hands up. “Why not? It would be a good test.”

“No.”

“I’d use rubber bullets.”

“No Jason.” Tim tells him sternly. He has to stop himself from rolling his eyes, of course Jason would want to shoot him. “ _Anyway,_ the third option could also potentially work. I feel the same as you though, I don’t like the idea of getting someone else on this, the more people that know the harder it would be to keep it as a secret. If we were to tell someone they’d have to be trustworthy and not have much contact with batman.”

Jason nods along as Tim speaks, obviously having already thought all this through. “Who did you have in mind?” Tim questions him.

“After thinking about it for a bit, I thought that asking Zatanna might be beneficial. She’s trustworthy and reliable, knows how to keep a secret as well as knowing how much of an asshole Bruce can be.”

“Maybe.” Tim says thoughtfully. “We could ask her if she could potentially take the powers away or at least help me contain them perhaps.”

Jason bobs his head in agreement. “Right, let’s see if we can contact her and get her to meet us somewhere where B won’t know.”

Tim turns around to his laptop and opens up his Justice League files and contacts, finding Zatanna’s he clicks it open and starts up a video call. Both men wait silently, neither of them knowing if the woman was going to pick up the call or not. Soon enough the call starts to connect and then Zatanna’s face appears on the screen.

Smiling away she raises an eyebrow. “Boy wonder number three, to what do I owe the pleasure of this call? Also it’s good to see you back.”

“Hey Zatanna.” Tim greets easily, ignoring what she had called him. “You’re not busy are you, we could use your help with something?”

Seeming more curious, the woman leans closer to the screen. “You caught me at the right time honey, what do you need help with? Also who’s we?”

Tim leans to the side so she could see past him to see Jason, who is still lounging on Tim’s bed. Jason waves and sends her a smirk. “What’s up doll?”

Tim sees Zatanna’s eyes flicker over to Jason before going back to him narrowing. “Should I be concerned?”

Tim shakes his head and lets out a light laugh. “No it’s okay. As I said we need your help with something, you willing to help us out?”

Zatanna’s expression stays the same, “Does it involve blowing something up?”

“No.”

Zatanna softens her features. “Okay then, yeah I can help you out. What do you need?”

Tim goes to reply but Jason beats him to it. “Can you come to this address in the next 10 minutes or so, this is something we need a bit more privacy for.” Jason moves off the bed and takes over Tim’s laptop. He goes to the messages section and types up the address then sends it.

They see Zatanna read the address before looking back at them both suspiciously. Tim thought for a moment that she would decline to come but she speaks up. “Yeah I can do that, I’m guessing this is to be kept from a certain someone.” Both men nod. “Alright see you there then.”

They end the call. “Okay that’s sorted, get dressed and meet me in the garage and also wipe your computer from that talk or whatever techie things you do to make it untraceable or whatever.” Jason tells Tim as he stands up straight.

Tim nods and moves to get more appropriate clothes out as Jason leaves his room. As he gets dressed Tim just hopes that Zatanna can do something, anything really. Maybe she could work out what they had injected him with, or if it's permanent and maybe she could just get rid of the powers overall.

He quickly meets Jason in the garage and they get into one of Bruce’s less flashy cars. The car ride is short into the city and then is quickly over as they pull up to a well hidden alley. They both climb out and stealthily make their way into one of Jason’s safe houses. Zatanna is already there in the living room as they enter through the door, she’s dressed up in her costume having obviously thought it was hero business.

As they enter she looks at them surprised. “Is it not hero business you wanted a hand with?”

Jason looks at Tim then at back at Zatanna. “Not exactly.”

Zatanna raises her eyebrows and crosses her arms across her chest in a questioning manor.

“Before we tell you anything you’ve got to promise to keep this from Bruce, he can’t find out about it.” Jason tells her.

Her eyes narrow at him. “He’s the world’s greatest detective for a reason, whatever you’re hiding he will find out about it.”

Her words make Tim flinch and it doesn’t go unnoticed by Jason. The older man shoots him a sympathetic look before looking at Zatanna again. “Trust me, we know. Just promise not to tell him.”

The woman puts her hands on her hips with her eyes still narrowed. “Okay fine, I promise not to tell him. Now tell me what you need a hand with.”

Jason says nothing but looks at Tim, Tim looks back silently asking Jason to tell her what’s wrong. Somehow understanding what Tim wanted Jason looks at the woman once again. “Our Boy Wonder over here has developed powers. In the weeks he was gone something had happened and now he has powers.” Jason tells her bluntly, not treading lightly at all. “We wanted to see if you could help him somehow.”

Zatanna’s face softens as she looks over at Tim and he looks down at his hands shamefully, now noticing the tingling sensation at the tips of his fingers once again.

“Okay.” She says. “I can see what I can do but I can’t guarantee anything. You looking to get rid of them I assume.”

“Yeah, think you can do that?” Jason asks her.

Zatanna looks intensely at Tim, as if studying him. “I’m not sure.” In a soft voice she calls Tim over. “Hey Tim, why don’t you sit down on the couch. I’ll see what I can do.”

Without looking up Tim silently makes his way to the couch and sits down on the edge. Zatanna crouches down in front of him and places her hands of his knees in a comforting fashion. Thankfully Tim is able to stop himself from flinching at the contact.

“Can you tell me how you got these powers Tim?” She asks softly.

He looks up and meets the sympathetic look she’s giving him before looking back down at his hands. “I was injected with an unknown substance about two weeks ago. The injections were continuous, 4 a day, every other day for a week. One in each limb.” Tim quietly tells her, still not looking at her. “Then one day I just developed powers, they tried to get me to control them but I can’t get a hold of them properly. It happens whenever really.” He then looks up at her hopefully. “I was hoping you can get rid of them.”

Zatanna stares at him for a moment before nodding. “Okay sweetie, I’ll see what I can do but it sounds more like a scientific problem rather than a magical one, so I may not be able to help.”

Tim nods in understanding and tries to keep the disappointment he’s feeling from showing.

Zatanna stands back up. “I don’t really know how to describe what I’m about to do, but all you need to know Tim is that you’re going to black out for a minute or two okay. I’m going more or less scan your body in a way. Is that alright?”

Tim looks up at her before looking to Jason. His brother is looking at them with concern but doesn’t say anything against Zatanna. Tim turns back to her and nods, he then shuffles backwards and leans against the back of the couch.

Zatanna leans forward and presses her palm against his head. After a few seconds Tim feels her hand warm up against his skin but that's the last thing he’s aware of as his mind goes blank and his vision darkens.

When he opens his eyes again, both Zatanna and Jason are staring at him.

“You okay Baby Bird?” Jason asks him.

“I’m fine.” Tim tells his brother and then looks at Zatanna hopefully. “Can you fix it? Can you get rid of them, or at least stop them from showing?” His heart drops at the soft look she gives him.

“Tim there isn’t anything I can do I’m afraid, whatever you got injected with has seemed too fused with your blood. I can’t change blood or DNA. From what you have told me that you haven’t got control over the powers yet, trying to suppress them would only make it worse. I could help you to hide them once you have better control over them, but for now I can’t offer any help.”

Tim nods and sends her a forced smile. “That’s okay. Thank you for taking a look.”

She puts a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry I can’t do anymore for you. I hope you get it sorted and when you’re ready you can come to me.”

“Thanks doll.” Jason says to her as she starts muttering a spell. She smiles at him then disappears from sight, having teleported back home.

Once she disappears Tim puts his face in his hands and lets out a sob. He feels the couch dip next to him and then an arm wrapping around shoulders. He lets Jason pull him into his side, once he does he clings onto Jason and cries into his brother’s chest.


	9. Titans Tower

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tim visits the Titan's

Tim had ended up spending the night at Jason’s safe house. He had let Alfred know where he was and to asked if he could pass the message onto Bruce.

After breaking down, embarrassingly, in Jason’s arms he didn’t really have any energy or the motivation to move anywhere. Jason had stayed with him for the rest of the day and through to late evening until he went on patrol. Tim had insisted that he didn’t have to stay with him but the older man wouldn’t have any of it and claimed he wanted to stay with Tim, though Tim suspected that he really didn’t.

The two of them had watched corny TV shows and had pizza for tea. They had briefly discussed what options they had left. One of which was going to the Flash’s and asking for help, with them being meta-humans as well as scientists they could potentially help Tim out. However they remember the fact that they are indeed the flash family and that they aren’t really known for keeping secrets and are known for having the biggest blabber mouths in the world, they ruled them out.

Thankfully nothing happened with Tim’s powers, the only thing was that Tim’s protection layer had appeared once again, much to Jason’s amusement. The man had spent at least 15 minutes throwing food at Tim just to see it bounce off without Tim actually noticing it. Once Tim noticed it, he gave his brother a close replica of the bat glare which immediately got him to stop.

In the morning Jason dropped Tim back off at the Manor before leaving to do who knows what. Tim knew better than to ask. Thankfully Bruce was at WE for the day so he wouldn’t be around at all, Dick was nowhere to be found and Alfred was busy doing chores all around the house, therefore this gave Tim free reign of the place.

He spent a good three hours working on his report for Bruce, it only took that long because it was hard to write as he remembered every little detail of his capture. The memories were painful to remember and trying to alter what had happened down into words just made it that little bit more difficult.

In the end he had put that he was held hostage in a cell and wasn’t let out, there were scientists who came and took his blood, they had forced him into doing different tests like how fast his reflexes were, what his flexibility limitations were. He kept it vague but detailed in certain areas like how he escaped and gave a rough estimate on how far he had travelled to get back.

After finishing up his report he print it out and then headed down to the cave. He placed the report on the computer desk, somewhere where the man could easily find it, and then headed to the changing rooms to change into Robin.

Putting on the familiar uniform gave Tim a bit of comfort, like everything that has happened actually didn’t happen and how he was still just a plain old human that only seemed superhuman, Robin the Boy Wonder (number three). Knowing that everything had indeed changed much to his disliking he knew he had to enjoy what he had left because he fears that he won’t have it much longer.

While trying to wipe away the negative thoughts, _trying to,_ he made his way to the batplane and set it up to go to the Tower. He had promised his friends that he’d go over in the next few days. He put it into stealth mode and navigated it to the tower with ease. He hadn’t even seen his friends, his team, in weeks even prior to his imprisonment. He had been so caught up in trying to find the drug dealer and his cartel to even try and spend some time with them. They never called him when he was working in Gotham this time so obviously they hadn’t needed him desperately.

A little while later he reaches the Tower and parks the plane in a clearing area next to it. Getting out of the plane he immediately makes his way over to the Tower, he enters his code and walks in. Having no idea where anybody could be he makes his way to the main living space, guessing that’s the most likely place where anyone would actually be if they were in the Tower. Or in the kitchen.

He enters the room and sees Cassie and Bart on the couch watching TV. Both of them were in their civvies and Bart’s holding what looks like a giant bowl of popcorn while Cassie just casually leans into his side and takes handfuls at a time. Neither of them notices him come in. Getting an idea in mind he silently makes his way to the back of the couch making sure he doesn’t attract any attention to himself, something which is easily done after many years of working as Robin and being at Batman’s side.

Coming up behind them, he leans over and quickly grabs each of their shoulders with one hand. Underneath his hands he feels them both physically jump and both of them let out scream in fear. Tim remembers to let go of their shoulders and lean back as Cassie turns around, she throws out a blind punch before scrambling to her feet in a defensive stance. Bart just stays on the couch and wipes away popcorn from his clothes, which had gotten over him when he jumped, while grumpily muttering about wasted popcorn; he had already noticed that the ‘intruder’ was just Tim.

“Hey guys.” Tim says happily at them, trying to keep it together from laughing out loud. He can’t help but let out a few noises when Cassie turns and glares at him, clearly not amused by it all.

Tim’s laughing is cut off when something collides with him at his side. He makes an ‘oof’ sound as he feels slender arms wrap around his waist and then feels hair brush at his chin and neck.

“OhmygodTimyouractuallyherewedidn’texpectyouforanotherdayortwobutitsgoodtoseeyouagain.” Bart blurts out in his speed talk which makes Tim blink. He doesn’t think he’ll ever get used to Bart’s speed talk.

“Bart slow down! It’s good to see you but I do need to breath.”

Instantly the arms from around his waist and the hair at his chin and neck are gone. Tim finds himself now staring at a beaming Bart in front of him. As he goes to speak to him another pair of arms wraps around his shoulders and pulls him in for another hug. One again he loses his breath at the force he’s pulled back with into a chest.

“Tim it’s good to see you! Thank god you’re not dead, what happened and where were you? No one could find you.”

“Hey Cassie, it’s good to see you too.” Tim tells her, ignoring the questions she’s asked.

Cassie lets him go and slaps the back of his head, hard. “You moron! How could you leave us like that?!”

Tim doesn’t even get the chance to rub his head or the chance to defend himself before she’s pulling him back in for another bear hug.

“I’m glad you’re back.” She tells him before letting him go once again.

Tim tips his head towards the couch and the TV opposite it. “What were you guys doing?”

“We started to watch all Harry Potter movies again, because nothing else was on. Areyougoingtojoinus?” Bart answers him, again Tim blinks at the last bit but can easily figure out what the speedster asked him.

Nodding he says, “As long as I get my own bowl of popcorn.” Not even finishing his sentence he feels a harsh breeze go by and then to come back a second later. He feels a weight in his hands and sees a middle sized bowl full to the top of popcorn. How it stayed in the bowl as Bart ran, he’ll never know.

Smiling at his friend he makes his way to the couch. Unclipping his cape and taking off his gloves and mask he settles down on the couch and then is quickly joined by the other two. The three of them get comfortable as the movie plays in front of them.

As the movie plays the three of them are slowly joined by others. Gar comes in first, he gives Tim another bear hug then joins them on the couch. Kori is next, she too gives Tim a crushing hug and settles down on the adjacent couch. Tim is surprised when Raven and Vic walks in, Raven gives him a nod in acknowledgement which he returns and Vic gives him a fist bump, they settle on the couch with Kori.

Tim takes a moment to take in scene around him. He can’t remember the last time most of the Titan’s just chilled out with one another, both older and younger. It makes a nice change and brings a small smile to his face, he has missed this and it’s good to be back that’s for sure.

They’re just starting the third movie when Tim feels the tingle appear once again in his finger tips. He quickly looks around and notices no one is, thankfully, paying him any attention. He looks down at his hands, he’s still holding a quarter full bowl of popcorn, to see that nothing has changed. The tingle starts to spread out over his palms and suddenly he can feel more of the bowl than just the bit he’s holding. He can feel the coldness of the glass as gets to the rim, then the feel of it as it starts to concave in without actually moving his hands. He’s suddenly becomes more aware of the weight of the bowl in his hands and then he’s starting to feel all the pieces of popcorn inside, it feels like he’s just grabbed a handful.

After a moment he realises that he isn’t even holding the bowl anymore as the bowl itself is floating a couple centimetres above his hands. Tim marvels at the fact it still feels like he’s actually holding it. He slowly moves his hands upwards and then downwards to see the bowl follow his movements in the air just above him.

A loud laugh comes from his right and it causes him to lose his concentration on the bowl. It falls back down into his hands and being unprepared for it Tim clumsily catches it but tips it a little too much and spills it over his lap. He then suddenly remembers that he isn’t alone in the room, alarmingly his head snaps up and looks at everyone else. Luckily everyone is too engrossed in the film and has their heads turned at the TV. He notices that only Bart, who’s sat next to him, is looking at him with a raised eyebrow. He sees the other boy’s eyes look down at the spilled food then come back up to meet his gaze.

“Dude you okay?” Bart asks him.

Tim distractively nods as he picks up the pieces. “Yeah, just lost grip of the bowl for a second.”

Tim sees that his friend is about to comment but then is distracted by Cassie whacking his arm and pointing to the screen while telling him something. Bart’s attention then taken off Tim and Tim is grateful for that.

After picking up all the popcorn pieces Tim places the bowl on the floor and then buries his hands in his lap. He realises that the tingle has disappeared from them fully, now allowing him to feel the warmth of his lap. Tim shakes his head, once again that was a close one. He really needs to learn to control them better if he’s going to keep it a secret. He even has a brief moment of thinking about taking Jason up on his offer to help train him but then remembers that is a stupid idea and pushes it to the side. He’ll think of something, he has to.

They begin to set up the forth film when the older Titans leave, they bid them all a goodbye as they leave the room. It’s only Bart, Cassie and he left. It’s been about 10 minutes into the film when they hear a chirpy voice greet them from behind.

“Hey guys!”

The three of them turn around to find Conner walking towards them. He’s wearing his costume, which Tim actually never understood the choice of, a black t-shirt with the red ‘S’ symbol across the chest, jeans and his combat boots.

“Hey Kon!” “Hey Man!” Both Cassie and Bart say to him, while Tim just stays silent.

Tim sees Conner’s eyes scan the scene and as they land on him. The other boy’s steps falter and the smile drops from his face into a frown. He crosses is arms across his chest, his posture becoming rigid. “Didn’t realise that you were back.” He says in a bland tone, a big contrast compared to his other tone which he greeted them in.

Tim narrows his eyes at Conner. “I got back just a couple days ago.”

Conner just makes a grunting noise in acknowledgement. He stays standing up while staring, more like glaring, at Tim. Tim returns his glare with one of his own. The room suddenly becomes filled with thick tension as the two teens stare at one another.

It doesn’t last very long as Cassie very loudly clears her throat. “Kon, we’re watching Harry Potter. Care to join us?” She asks him from her spot on the sofa.

Conner slowly moves his eyes off Tim to Cassie, and Tim sees him thinking about the offer before the teen relaxes his posture and continues to make his way to the couch. On the couch they all shuffle up so they can once again fit four of them on it, compared to Gar Conner is a giant in body size so it’s a bit of a squeeze but they manage it. Conner sits on the opposite end of the couch to Tim, and he’s thankful for that.

The tension in the room gradually eases down as they all get engrossed in the film once again. As the movie plays on Tim starts to drift off, he struggles to keep his eye lids open as they occasionally fall shut without him even realising. He’s pretty sure he’s about to fall asleep when suddenly he feels jabbing in his side. Sluggishly he looks that way to see Bart staring at him with big eyes and a cocked smile.

“What Bart?” He slurs out.

He sees Bart’s eyes glance down then back up. “Are you gonna finish you’re popcorn?”

Tim’s eyebrows furrow in confusion as he looks down at the quarter filled bowl on the floor before looking at Bart once again. Waving his hand dismissively he says. “Go ahead.”

He watches as Bart turns around and says “He’s not gonna eat it, it’s all yours Supes.”

Tim now raises an eyebrow at his friend before his attention is turned to the popcorn bowl. He stares at it as it starts to float up off the ground and makes it way to Conner’s out stretched hand. He observes the other teen as he grabs the bowl and starts to munch on its contents.

Tim looks at the other boy for a good minute or so before he notices him looking. Conner turns his eyes to him and meets his gaze. “What? You said you weren’t gonna eat it.” He demands with his eyes narrowing.

“Nothing. Sorry” Tim quickly replies and turns away feeling rather embarrassed that he got caught staring.

He faces the screen but doesn’t pay attention to it. He’s still repeating about what happened with the bowl. He remembers how smoothly it passed in front of him and straight into Conner’s hand, there was no falter in the movements, it was all well controlled and orientated.

That's when he suddenly gets an idea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So regarding Tim and Kon friendship/relationship, I'm not basing it off of anything just something I'm making up entirely, just putting that out there. I guess I'm more doing it for character development and for myself to write something different.  
> I hope people are still enjoying it and sorry that this chapter took a little while to come up. :)


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason and Tim talk, then Tim thinks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is shorter compared to the other ones, sorry about that! Hopefully the next one will be longer when I get it up. 
> 
> Once again, any/all mistakes are mine. Please enjoy :D

"Superboy."

“What?”

“Superboy.”

“Tim, I have no idea what you’re on about. Care to elaborate, I’m not a fucking mind reader.”

Tim lets out an impatient huff. “Superboy could help me with my problem.”

“Right.”

Tim can practically hear the eye roll his brother is doing on the other side of the phone. “Look Jay it’s probably the best option we have here. He has telekinesis. He can control it, I ask him to help me to control it. Hey presto problem sorted.”

He hears Jason give an exasperated sigh over the phone. “Tim you’re not thinking rationally here.”

Tim starts to protest “I am too-”

“No you’re not. For starters don’t you two hate one another, so what’s the point in even asking him to help if you don’t like him? How can you even trust him if you don’t like him?”

“No we don’t like one another, he’s an arrogant asshole, but I have worked with him long enough to know what he’s like.” Tim tells him. “I'm desperate now alright, there was another situation last night where I accidently levitated a bowl of popcorn from my hands. Thankfully no one saw but still, it’s getting real close to someone finding out if I can’t get a hold of these damn powers.”

“Tim. Tim. Timmy listen to me, you need to calm yourself down.” Jason says sternly over the phone, it's then Tim realises that he’s pacing the length of his bedroom and his breathing has become faster. He takes a deep breath and sits on the edge of his bed.

Wiping a hand over his face he speaks quietly into the phone. “I need his help Jay, I feel like he’s the best one to ask. As much as I really don’t want to ask him, I don’t really have any other choice.”

“There are still other choices, let me help you. I’ve got plenty of ideas that could work.”

Tim rolls his eyes. “Jason that is not going to happen, I’m not giving you a valid reason to shoot me.”

“Come on!” The other man protests. “It’ll work and you’ll be fine, also I’ll only use rubber bullets.”

“No.” Tim growls into the phone’s speaker. He takes another deep breath, this conversation is not going with how he expected it to go. In a calmer tone he speaks through to Jason. “Superboy is a good member to the Titans and when it comes to work he’s usually pretty level headed, which is saying something, so I think I can trust him with this. Either way I hate the guy off the field, he’s so immature and childish.”

“Uh-huh.” Jason deadpans. “Whatever you say Timmy. Well if you feel so strongly about him helping you out then go and ask him if you’re that sure but do not come crying back to me when it blows up in your face.”

“It won’t.” Tim says strongly.

“Whatever. Oh, yeah by the way Bruce wants you back in Gotham later on, told me he wants to talk to you. So have fun with that.”

Tim groans. That’s the last thing he needs to be dealing with right now.

The bastard on the other side of the phones laughs. “You’ll be fine, anyway see you later kiddo."

“Bye.”

Jason hangs up and Tim turns his phone off before slumping down on his bed and faces the ceiling.

He had stayed the night at the Tower, deeming it would just be easier to stay than to travel back to Gotham. During one of the movies Tim had removed himself from the group and retreated to him own room. He had wanted to get out of there, especially after Superboy caught him staring at him. Tim used the ‘being tired’ excuse to get away, though that excuse was true enough but the main reason was because he didn’t want to near Superboy at that moment of time. When he called Jason up it was in the start of the next afternoon, he had wanted to see what his brother thought about asking Superboy.

He thinks over the brief phone conversation. Jason doesn’t want him to ask Superboy, that’s pretty clear. Not that Tim really wants the teen’s help but it's just the most obvious choice, well that’s saying if Superboy will help him at all. There are other telekinetic users out there but then he’ll have to go through the struggle of trying to find them and then it’s the question of trust.

Does he trust Superboy? When their on the field doing missions then yes, to some extent, he can. As he told Jason Superboy is pretty level headed, particularly when it comes to missions and saving lives, Tim can tolerate him at them moments. Outside of the field, then no he can’t. To him it's like the other teen has two complete different personalities, there’s Superboy who is level headed, sensible, mature, polite and listens to orders. On the other hand there’s Conner Kent, or Kon-el, who is brash, childish, big headed, and arrogant and basically makes a move on anything that has a pulse. Tim can’t stand Conner but he’ll be asking Superboy for help, not Conner.

Maybe it’ll work, sort of depends on how Superboy acts, if he acts mature about it and treats it like another mission then that’s all well and good, however if he decides to be childish then Tim will not be happy and will most likely lash out at the super powered teen. Maybe he should have some kryptonite on standby just in case.

Not only is there the problem with Superboy but with Bruce as well. If Bruce wants him back in Gotham then he must have seen Tim’s report, meaning he’ll want to talk about it and ask questions which he’ll expect Tim to answer with no hesitation.

_Unless he knows._

Panic swells up inside Tim at the thought. What if Bruce just wants him back in Gotham so he can just kick him out, to banish him from the Manor, to fire him from Robin?

Tim drags his hands down his face and lets out a quiet whimper. When did his life get so complicated? He looks over at his bedside table clock to see that the numbers read just after 1 o’clock. Jason never mentioned what time Bruce wanted him over so figures that he’ll just spend most of the day here at the tower then he’ll get heading back. In the next few hours he can at least try to prepare himself, once again, for what is to come later on. Maybe this time he can prevent himself from freaking out, but who knows.


	11. Cornered and Patrol

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay with this chapter upload, I had no idea how heavy my college work would be once I went back so I have been busy trying to get some of that sorted out. 
> 
> But here it is the next part to the story, enjoy :)

It’s heading towards late evening when Tim arrives back at the Manor. As he climbs out of the batplane he has no idea what to expect from Bruce or how their conversation will go like. Will it end up like their last conversation or will Tim’s powers make an unwanted appearance, are they going to argue or will Bruce just accuse him of different things? Tim has no idea. Annoyingly Jason didn’t spare any details and because of that it’s just left Tim on edge for most of the day, weather that was his brother’s true intention or not, he’s not sure.

As Tim starts to walk his way through the cave he puts on a calm facade, he reminds himself he doesn’t know where Bruce is and could bump into him at any moment. If Bruce finds him freaking out then obviously that’ll just raise suspicion. Calm and collected, that’s what Tim is. Well at least on the outside, on the inside it's like a battlefield full of panic, anxiety, self-doubt, fear, and whatever else is mixed within it.

As Tim gets changed into his civvies in the changing rooms he bumps into Bruce. Well it’s more like Bruce has sought him out and then cornered him in the changing rooms, knowing there’s no way for Tim to make an easy escape from the room. Worse than that, Tim’s alone. Both Dick and Jason aren’t here to interrupt if they don’t like the way the conversation is going.

“Tim.”

“Bruce.”

Rather than looking at the man Tim busies himself by putting away his Robin uniform. He can feel his heart beating faster and has to remember to keep his breathing even, he’s actually really nervous to be around the man.

_What if he finds out? What if he already knows?_

Bruce doesn’t speak to him while he puts away his uniform but when Tim attempts to walk past the man a heavy hand lands on his shoulder and stops his movements.

“Tim I wanted to talk to you.” Bruce tells him. Tim can’t place the tone he’s speaking with, but he stays still and silent waiting for him to continue. “I read your report and personally wanted to talk to you about it.”

Bruce then starts to guide Tim out of the changing room and into the main part of the cave where the computer is. When Bruce turns him towards the computer chair Tim obliges the silent command and sits down in the chair. Tim puts his focus on the floor rather than on the man next to him.

“What about it?” Tim says defensively. “Everything that had happened I wrote down in it.”

“However I still feel like there is a lot missing from that report Tim. Mind telling me why I feel I like that.”

Tim keeps his gaze straight forward, still not looking at Bruce. “There is nothing missing from that report Bruce. It feels empty because a lot didn’t actually happen while I was there. They practically left me alone with my own thoughts for majority of the time. The only time I saw the scientists was when they wanted to do tests on me and I had no choice but to comply.” He tells him, and he’s pretty proud of himself that he managed to keep his voice steady the whole time.

He could feel Bruce’s intense stare on him. “And you have no idea who these scientists were.”

Tim shakes his head. “No sir. If I did I would have told you.” At least that’s the truth.

“And what about your identity?” Bruce asks.

“They didn’t seem bothered by it. Either they already knew or they simply didn’t care.” That’s still something Tim is confused over. They never questioned him for his real name.

“What did they do with the blood they took from you?”

“No idea.”

“Tim.” Bruce says his in a warning tone, he places his hand on Tim’s shoulder once again.

Refraining from rolling his eyes, Tim tells him. “I don’t know what you want me to say Bruce. I have no idea what they did with it or why they even wanted me there in the first place. They barely spoke to me.” Tim knows he’s being defensive and doesn’t care. Why won’t Bruce just take his answers and not question him.

_Because he’s the goddamn Batman and has to know everything._

Bruce stays silent and Tim can’t tell whether that’s good or bad. As Tim moves around in the seat he can feel the familiar tingling sensation develop in his fingers, slowly building up into the centre of his palms.

_Not now!_

Tim quickly moves his hands to underneath his thighs so he’s sat on them. He concentrates on his breathing trying to control it and tries to focus on anything else but the tingling sensation. It just makes it worse though. He can now feel the sensation travel through his body and start to gather at his shoulder where Bruce’s hand is still firmly clasped.

_What if Bruce feels it!_

“Are we done?” Tim impatiently asks Bruce.

From the corner of his eye he can see the man raise one eyebrow at Tim’s sudden attitude. Tim feels Bruce’s hand squeeze his shoulder one more time before he finally let’s go. The warmth Tim had been feeling around that area quickly runs over where the man’s hand just was. He’s pretty sure that it's the protection layer that’s just appeared once again.

“Just one more thing.” Bruce turns around and types something into the computer, Tim’s not sure what though as he’s not bothering to look. “Are you able to go on patrol tomorrow night? Or do you need to do some training before you go back out there.”

Tim shakes his head. “No I can do it. I’ll do it.”

Bruce nods his head and makes a confirming sound. “Okay good. Tomorrow I want you with either Red Hood or Nightwing. Just until we’re 100% sure you’re back to normal.”

Tim nods his head in understanding. “Yes sir. Anything else?”

“No that's all. Thank you Tim, make sure you get a good night’s sleep.”

If Tim wasn’t so eager to get out of Bruce’s sight he would have paid a lot more attention to the change in the man’s tone and the quick change of topic but Tim’s up and out of the seat before Bruce even finishes the sentence. He heads straight for the stairs leading up to the Manor and as he starts to ascend up the stairs he calls out “Night Bruce.”

When Tim gets to the top and passes through the clock into the study he relaxes and lets out a relieved sigh. That was close. _Too close._ He looks at his hands to find them looking normal but concentrating on them more he can feel the tingling sensation on them. He’s got to get this under control. He needs to talk to Superboy, but that’ll have to wait till he’s back at the tower which will most likely be the day after tomorrow now since he stupidly agreed to go on patrol.

He heads up to his room and closes the door behind him. He leans back against it and suddenly feels drained and mentally exhausted, maybe he should just tell Bruce to get it over and done with rather than dragging it out.

He lets out a quiet whimper as he feels the tingling sensation work its way through his body once again, spreading its warmth all over him. He feels it pooling at his palms, at his finger tips. He didn’t ask for powers. He doesn’t want powers. He was perfectly capable of working without them. He has proven time and time again that he doesn’t need powers to work in the vigilante life.

Now he has to re-learn all the ropes again, learn how to control them so they don’t act out without his permission. It’s like he’s starting his Robin training all over again but this time with a twist and he needs someone to show him what to do. Fair enough he could try to work it out himself but that’ll take a lot longer than he wants, if he gets someone to teach him who already knows what they’re doing then that would be a lot more efficient than him teaching himself.

That’s one reason why he isn’t having Jason help him, his brother doesn’t have powers so it would really be a lot of trial and error to see what works and what doesn’t. Also it’s one reason why Tim’s asking Superboy, as much as an asshole the teen is, he knows what he’s doing with his powers. If he agrees to help Tim out then that’ll be great, it's just convincing the other teen to help him out.

Tim moves slowly away from the door and over to his bed where he collapses on it still feeling drained. He shifts around so he’s curled up on his side and resting his head on one arm, he doesn’t bother changing his clothes or bothers to do anything really. He stares blankly at the wall opposite him and lets his mind wonder.

 

Tim’s not sure what time he fell asleep but when he looks at his clock on his bedside table it's reading _7:27_. He blinks at it in surprise and even checks his phone to see if that is indeed the time. When the screen illuminates and shows the same numbers Tim lets out a surprised noise, he hadn’t realised how tired he actually was. He notices that he’s now under the bed covers and his bedroom curtains have been closed. He thinks that Alfred must have checked on him in the night and pulled them closed and pulled the covers over him while he slept because he can’t remember doing it before he collapsed on his bed yesterday. That’s another indication to show how tired he must have been as he didn’t wake up from someone entering his room, unless he did wake up and sorted them things out himself and he just can’t remember but that seems unlikely.

He gets up and remakes his bed, he opens his curtains to see a gloomy day outside which isn’t unusual since its Gotham. Grabbing clean clothes he heads for the bathroom and cleans himself up with a hot shower. Thankfully his powers don’t make an appearance and he has no trouble with his normal morning routines.

Tim makes his way down the stairs, as he nears the bottom he sees Bruce walking towards the door dressed in a suit and is carrying a brief case. He’s going to WE. Tim makes no comment as he watches the man reach the front door and then proceeds to exit the Manor. He still has no idea what to do about his situation, he just doesn’t know what Bruce is going to do when he finds out.

Tim shakes his head and heads for the kitchen where he finds Alfred clearing up from where he made breakfast.

“Morning Alfred.” Tim announces his presence to the older man as he sits down at the table in his normal place.

Alfred turns to him and gives him a smile. “Morning Master Tim, I’m assuming you slept well last night.” He moves around the kitchen and brings Tim a cup of coffee.

Tim nods and takes a sip of his coffee, liking the feeling of the hot liquid travelling down his throat.

Alfred’s smile then turns into a regarding look “You missed dinner last night Master Tim.”

Tim sends him a sheepish look. “Sorry Alfred, I didn’t get in until late last night and just went straight to bed. Why didn’t you wake me up?”

Alfred once again moves around the kitchen before placing a plate of multiple pancakes in front Tim. “As much as you need your food sir, you need your sleep just as much. Just make sure you eat all of your breakfast this morning.”

Tim nods his head taking Alfred’s answer. “Will do Alf, it smells great.”

“Thank you sir, now if you’ll excuse me I have so errands to run.”

“Of course Alfred, see you later.”

From breakfast the day was a bit slow going for Tim. He spent most of the day working on his laptop catching up on different reports, different case files for Robin and the Teen Titans and even catching up on the daily news of Gotham and the world. Just after lunch Jason had called him up and they made arrangements for tonight, Robin will be patrolling with Red Hood which Tim is completely fine with. Jason knows, meaning he doesn’t have to try and hide them as hard as he would have to if he was patrolling with Bruce, and that gives him a bit of reassurance for tonight.

Around mid evening when both Alfred and Tim were eating Bruce came home from the office and announced that he had League business to take care of and would be gone for a few days. Seeing Alfred’s nod Tim assumes that they have already talked about it and Tim was left feeling out of the loop. From where he was sat Tim questioned Bruce about it, asking if he needed help or what he could do from here, his adoptive father just replied with that they’ve got it handled and he just needs to concentrate on Gotham.

It soon became night and Tim started to get ready for patrol. He was just finishing his warm up routine when Jason enters the cave on his motor bike, already in his Red Hood attire.

“Baby Bird.” He calls out. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

With his helmet tucked underneath one arm Jason makes his way over to Tim. Throwing an arm over the smaller man Jason starts to steer him towards the bike. “Right so like we said earlier, Nightwing is doing a mixture of his and B’s patrol route. We’ll do your normal one, then I’ll do mine once we get you home. Oracle will be over the coms if we need her. With that said lets have some fun.”

Jason shoves a spare bike helmet in Tim’s arms before putting his own back on. Wordlessly they climb on the bike, Tim wraps his arms tightly around Jason’s torso, and they head out to start their patrol.

It was going well, until it wasn’t. Early on they had stopped three muggings, one rape attempt, one store robbery and even saved a stray cat from being stuck in a gutter. Around the middle of patrol it went quiet so they stopped off for a snack, which happened to be ice cream and had a quick catch up session. It wasn’t until they were making their last round when the night turned for the worst, especially for Tim.

It was a gang of thugs. They were fighting a group of homeless teenagers, why exactly Tim wasn’t sure. Red Hood and himself stepped in the middle of it and made quick work of the thugs but somehow one had managed to slip away from both of them and started to make a break for it up a ladder and on to the rooftops.

Seeing as Red Hood was occupied with dealing with the teenagers Tim took it upon himself to go after the runaway. He grappled onto the roof and took off after the running man. The chase didn’t last long as Tim quickly caught up to him and soon enough they were engaged in a fist fight in a middle of a roof on top of some apartments.

The man wasn’t terrible, Tim had to certainly dodge a few well aimed shots, but he wasn’t brilliant and Tim has fought more skilled people. As they fought Tim was aware on how close to the edge they were getting, unfortunately it was his back was to the edge. Tim ducked a punch and twisted away from the man, spinning around he sent a kick into the thugs back to send him stumbling forward a few steps.

Tim’s initial plan was to grab the back of the man’s jacket as he stumbled forward and slam him back down onto the floor where he would nerve strike him to knock him unconscious. However it seemed that life had other ideas on the matter. As Tim sent a kick into the man’s back he felt the all familiar tingling sensation suddenly build up in his hands.

_Not now!_

Not being able to do anything about the power building up in his palms he reaches out to grab the thug like he originally planned. He grips the man’s jacket but then suddenly it wasn’t in his grip no more. Horrifically Tim realises that he hadn’t pulled the man backwards but rather pushed him forwards instead. He notices that the tingling sensation has dulled down in his palms and makes the connection that he pushed the man away from him with his TK.

Tim is frozen in place as he watches the man topple over the edge of the roof screaming. He doesn’t snap into action until there was an abrupt silence. The man stopped screaming. _What has he done?_ Fearing the worst Tim races over to the edge and peers down into the alley way below.

He sighs in relief when he doesn’t see a mangled body on the floor but he freezes when he realises why there wasn’t a mangled body on the alley way floor. Red Hood is stood over the thug’s unconscious figure gripping a grapple in one hand. Somehow sensing the new pair of eyes on him Red Hood turns and looks up, straight up at Tim and Tim’s breath catches in his throat. He hates Hood’s expressionless mask, he has no idea what his brother is thinking. He can’t make out anything from his stiff body posture however if he saw his face at least he would have some kind of indication of what the other man was thinking.

Impetuously Tim turns on his heel and flees from that particular roof top and from behind he can distinctively hear the sound of a grapple gun firing. He’s leaping to the next building over when he hears Hood shout, “Robin!”

Tim doesn’t stop moving, he tucks and rolls onto the next rooftop. It's when Tim goes to leap to the forth building that Jason catches up to him. As his feet leave the ground an arm wraps around his waist and tugs him backwards. There’s a bit of struggling on Tim’s part but his movements are stopped when the arm around his waist tightens and both of his wrists are held in one large gloved hand.

Giving up fighting Tim goes limp. The man behind him lowers him to the ground and they sit down together, Jason still holding on tightly to Tim.

“What happened Robin?” Red Hood asks him. Damn his stupid helmet, his voice is being changed to make it sound deeper and more electronic.

Tim says nothing as he scowls. He feels the arm around his waist leave for a moment before it returns again.

“Robin, what happened?” His brother repeats. This time it’s Jason’s own voice meaning that he took the helmet off.

“I didn’t mean too.” Tim quietly lets out. His breath catches in his throat once more and he chokes back a sob. “Please Jay, believe me.”

He feels Jason shift around behind him, he lets go of Tim’s wrists and wraps both of his arms around Tim's torso. “I believe you Baby Bird, okay.”

Tim scrunches his eyes shut. “I almost killed him.”

“But you didn’t, the bastard is still alive and breathing.”

“I almost killed him Jason! If it wasn’t for you he would be dead! I pushed him off the ledge, I sent him to his death and didn’t even react fast enough to stop him!”

“Well I was there and I caught the bastard as he fell alright. He’s not dead and you didn’t kill anyone alright.” Jason’s voice goes stern.

Tim shakes his head not listening to Jason. “God what is Bruce going to say. First the powers and now this, I’m in so much trouble. He’s not only going to fire me from Robin but is-”

Tim rambling is cut off when he suddenly gets violently shaken by the arms around him.

“Tim you are going to listen to me alright.” Jason tells him, he makes his point by shifting them around so they’re facing one another. “We will sort through this alright, Bruce isn’t going to do anything to you okay. You didn’t kill a man tonight so stop worrying about it, we will work on your control and we will get this sorted.”

Tim stays silent, keeping his mouth shut from any of his other thoughts from slipping out. He watches Jason stand up and put his helmet back on, then as he reaches for Tim to pull the teenager to his feet.

“Let’s get you home kid.” Jason says as he wraps an arm around his shoulders. “You know with the amount of sappy shit your making me do your going to owe me big time after all this.”

Tim can’t help but smile a little. Typical Jason.

“Like seriously, I’m talking something big here Baby Bird. You owe me. I swear I’ve dealt with more emotions these last two months than I have in the last three years or so, probably longer than that to be honest.”

Tim knows he’s joking but his brother probably does deserve something after they get this situation sorted. He makes a mental note to do just that.


	12. Talking To Superboy.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tim finally talks to Conner.

The next day Tim made arrangements to stay at Titan’s Tower for the next week or so. Both Jason and Dick were fine with him leaving and claimed that they can take care of Gotham. Jason knew the real reason for Tim going to the Tower and had agreed to cover him in any way he needed if it came down to it, which seems very unlikely but the promise was there. Dick on the other hand had to be convinced but when Tim brought up the idea of team bonding for the week the older man was all for him going to the Tower.

“Make sure you do a variety of activities Timmy, don’t just train with them. Go to the beach one day, have movie marathons or go to a fair, you know. Obviously training and doing stimulations will help with team work out in the field, but just relaxing and getting to know one another are just as important.”

Tim rolls his eyes as he walks up to the batplane. Dick’s been bothering him about what he’s going to be doing with his team for most of the day ever since the topic came up. It’s like Dick doesn’t know that he’s been leading the team for a while now and that he doesn’t have any experience in what to do during ‘team bonding’. He may not always like the idea but that doesn’t mean he’s clueless.

“I know what you’re like Tim.” Dick states from behind him as he enters the plane, Dick follows him in. “Your all work and no play.”

Tim ignores him in favour of turning the plane on and doing quick checks of the controls. Dick comes up behind him as he sits in the pilots chair.

“Seriously though, make sure you relax some alright. I know everything’s been a bit everywhere since you came back, it’ll do you good.”

Tim pauses and looks up at his older brother. Dick’s face is somehow showing a mixture of concern and amusement. Concern as he’s worried about Tim and things concerning with his health apparently and amusement because, as he said, he knows what Tim is like.

Giving him a small smile Tim says “I’ll be fine Dick, thanks. Just try not to rile Jason up to much, I don’t want to come back and do damage control.”

In response Dick laughs and ruffles his hair which Tim scowls at. “No promises kiddo, have fun now.” With that Dick turns and leaves the plane. Tim waits a few minutes before starting the plane and setting in the co-ordinates for the Tower.

Only if Dick really knew what Tim had planned for the week.

 

 ---------------------------------------------------------------

 

When Tim arrives at the Tower he’s greeted by Cassie, which he is slightly surprised by, she sends him a smile and wraps him in a hug.

“Hey.”

“Hey, what's with the welcoming?” He asks as she lets go of him.

“I thought I’d be kind and give you a heads up, both Gar and Bart has control of the TV tonight, I think they’re demanding a giant tournament of Mario kart or a movie marathon.” She tells him with an irritated look.

Tim cocks an eyebrow at her. “How did they get the TV in the first place?”

She looks away from him. “They may have won a bet against me and Vic.”

Tim gives her a look before shaking his head. “I’m not even going to ask as I probably really don’t want to know. But thank you for the heads up.” They start heading through the Tower. “Could you tell everyone that I’m here and if they need me I’ll be in my room please?”

Cassie gives him a sideways glance before nodding. “Sure, but don’t be surprised when either of them come in and drag you into TV room.”

“Thanks.” They separate off and Tim goes to his room. There are a few things that he needs to sort out for this week if he wants to achieve what he needs to. He makes sure to plan some training sessions and maybe one day out so if Dick does ask he can tell him that they did do different stuff, but also if Dick decides to ask anyone else they’ll hopefully tell him that they did some different things too therefore proving that Tim did do what the older man wanted.

Then there’s the whole Superboy thing. How is he going to convince the other teen to help him and when he is even going to ask him? Obviously they need to be alone so they can talk, perhaps he can talk to him after one of the training sessions. He might try that if he can’t think of anything else, or maybe he can leave him a note saying to meet him on the roof. He’ll have to cross that bridge when he gets to it.

Not even an hour had gone by when Bart appears in his room. Thanks to Tim’s quick reflexes he can stop the paper he’s writing on from flying everywhere. He turns and gives a mild glare at his friend. “Dude, how many times have I told you to knock before entering?”

Bart just beams at him. “You told me to knock when the door was closed, you left it open this time so I assumed I could just enter.”

Tim turns his glare to his door then softens his look as he turns back to Bart, who is now rocking back and forwards on his feet. “Let me guess, you want me to go with you to the TV room.”

Bart quickly nods. “Yep! Let’s go!” In a blink of an eye Bart disappears and even before Tim can move from his seat at his desk Bart re-appears once again.

“You not coming” Bart asks with a pout.

“Let me just tidy up here then I’ll be there.” Tim tells him and Bart immediately brightens up.

“Okay!” Once again Bart vanishes from sight and Tim shakes his head, _speedsters._

True to his word Tim tidies up his desk, he wasn’t really working on anything important knowing he would be interrupted early on. He gets up and heads for the TV room. As he gets closer he hears the noise from inside the room right down the corridor and as he walks Tim prepares himself for a long night. Upon entering the room he sees four people gathered closely in front of the TV, they’re all pushing and shoving one another while screaming at each other. He sees Cassie stretched out on one of the couches, ignoring all the commotion going on around her.

He moves and settles on the end of the couch Cassie is laid on. Seeing him she sends him a knowing look with a smirk and turns back to the phone in her hands. Tim watches the four figures in front of the TV all playing Mario kart _._ By the looks of it Gar is currently in first place who is followed up by Conner, Bart is taking third place while Vic hangs back in forth. Gar suddenly starts screaming at Bart when a blue shell is being sent his way. Vic starts cheering as he passes Bart now claiming third place. Conner also cheers as he surpasses Gar now holding first place.

Tim sighs; _this is defiantly going to be a long night._

 

_\--------------------------------------------------------_

 

Wiping the sweat off of his forehead Tim looks around to his team mates. Kid Flash was busily stuffing his face with multiple chocolate bars, Wonder Girl was doing some stretches and Superboy was downing a bottle of water. They had just completed battle stimulation in the training room of the Tower, it was pretty tough but they have had worse to deal with, though this time it was more about practising different battle manoeuvres that they have made up as a team.

All they had to do was fight armies made up of different things, things ranging from robots to ninjas. Each wave became increasingly more difficult and they as a team had to up their fighting. The stimulation was made so it felt like a real battle though and thankfully they couldn’t really get hurt, however if they were hit all it would have felt like is that they’ve been tasered. The whole thing went okay and that's all that really mattered.

Thankfully Tim’s powers hadn’t made an appearance and they haven’t since two nights ago when he went patrolling with Jason. He was half expecting them to appear when he was in the TV room last night while they all watched TV, thankfully they didn’t. He has no idea what's going on with them, one minute they manifest then the next they go only to appear once again hours or days later. Having powers is confusing, he’s glad that he hasn’t had them before now.

“Robin.” Tim turns to Wonder Girl who had called him. “We done here or you got another thing up your sleeve for us to do?”

Tim shakes his head. “No we’re good Wonder Girl.” He turns to the others and addresses them all. “We’re done here for today guys, well done but I think we’re going to need to work on M3 again though. I’ll look over the footage later on to see what else we need to improve and let you know.”

Wonder Girl says nothing as she turns and leaves the room and Kid Flash nods in understanding before he too leaves the room therefore leaving him and Superboy in the training room. Alone. Tim glances over at the other teen to find him bent over redoing the laces of his boots. _Now would be the right time, while it's just us two, I can alter the footage later on._

He watches as Superboy stands up straight and starts to walk towards the door, not even giving Tim any recognition. Taking a deep breath he calls out to the other teen. “Superboy, I need to talk to you.”

Superboy stops in his tracks and slowly turns around to face Tim, he crosses his arms over his chest and raises an eyebrow in question. His whole posture is telling Tim that he's annoyed that he’s being held back. Tim ignores it and speaks to the other teen. _Here it goes._

“I need your help with something.” He starts out and Superboy’s eyebrows furrow together, clearly not expecting that. “This is something that no one and I mean _no one_ can know about. This is just between you and me.” Tim tells the other boy, exaggerating the important part of that sentence.

Superboy still has his arms crossed over his chest and his facial features showing that he’s suspicious if not curious about what Tim has to say. “What is it and why are you asking me? Get someone else to help you.”

Tim ignores the last part and answers him. “I’m asking you because you’re the only one who can help me.”

Superboy cocks an eyebrow, a smug look now forming on his face. “Oh yeah, must be pretty desperate coming to me then huh.”

Tim grinds his teeth together and spits out. “Unfortunately.”

Superboy smirks at him and Tim clenches his hands tighter around his bow staff that he’s still holding. “I can hear your heart racing you know, whatever it is it must have you really worked up. What is it, what’s got you so desperate that you need _my_ help?” His tone is mocking.

“You can’t tell anyone.” Tim emphasizes again. Superboy waves his hand around in an impatient manner, telling him to hurry up with it. “During the weeks of my captivity I was experimented on. From that I gained powers. I have the power of telekinesis and I need your help to control it.”

A heavy silence fell between them after Tim finishes his sentence. He studies Superboy to see what his reaction is, but the other teens face has gone void of all emotion making it difficult for Tim to read him. For a moment he thinks to himself that he’s surprised that Superboy can even look like that, usually the jerk is either looking smug or has great concentration on his face. The silence continues for another 3 minutes or so and Tim begins to think that this was indeed a terrible idea. His thoughts are further confirmed when the silence is broken by hysterical laughter. The bastard is laughing at him. Tim sends him his hardest bat-glare he can muster up but Superboy ignores him.

The laughter dies down after a minute or two and Superboy speaks up. “And here I thought it was going to be serious. They say that you don’t have a sense of humour Robin, who put you up to this Bart, maybe Gar?”

“This isn’t a joke!” Tim snaps at him. “Why the hell would I joke about something like this?!”

The bastard gives a disinterested shrug. “I don’t know but you have to admit that was utter bullshit. You’ve got powers, yeah right.”

Tim clenches his teeth hard, he’s doing everything he can to restrain himself from lashing out at the other teen with his bow staff. “Look, use that thing between your ears and think for a moment. Why the hell would I come to you for anything huh! This is a serious matter and I’m not joking around, if I had any other choice I would gladly go to them but I don’t! Now I need your help you asshole.”

Superboy scoffs at him and turns around, he starts striding towards the door. “Nice try Robin, this will definitely be a good joke to tell everyone.”

Infuriated, Tim chucks his bow staff towards the retreating teen. Without even realising it he must have used his powers to launch the staff further because it hits Superboy’s back, though not hard enough to hurt him but hard enough to gain his attention once again. The boy abruptly stops moving.

“Why the fuck don’t you believe me! You’ve been experimented on, hell you were created through experimentation, the least you could do is listen to me.” Tim screams at his back, now losing all his patience. He was aware that it was a low blow on his part but right now he doesn’t give a fuck. Why can’t the other teen see that he wasn’t joking?

Watching Superboy’s back, Tim sees him tense up at his words and just briefly Tim thinks he may have over done it. If Superboy attacks him he has absolutely no chance against him without any kryptonite.

The teen reels back around to face him, giving him a murderous look. “Why not go to Batman?! We don’t even fucking like each other, so why come to me and what makes you think I will happily help you.” He yells back.

“I haven’t gone to Batman because he hates Meta’s, he will kick me out if he finds out.”

“Oh boo-hoo, poor you. Well you’re the great boy wonder, work it out for yourself.”

Tim suddenly deflates, all the fight has just drained out of him. He isn’t listening, but what else did Tim expect, just to say ‘yeah sure, why not’. He silently watches Superboy as the teen glares back. After a moment Superboy sneers at him. “This is the most pathetic thing you have ever done Robin and that is really saying something.” His tone now full of spite.

Once again Superboy heads for the door, in one last desperate move Tim calls out to him. “I almost killed a man with these powers Conner.”

Tim is certainly shocked when he pauses. He’s not sure about what made him pause, whether it was the fact he told him he nearly killed someone or the fact that he used his real name. Taking the opportunity Tim explains further. “The other night I went on patrol. Towards the end I was fighting a thug on top of some apartments. I nearly killed him. I accidently pushed him away with the telekinesis, sending him off the rooftop. Thankfully Red Hood was around, he grabbed the thug and put him down safely.”

The other boy is still stood in the same place, so Tim takes this as a sign to continue.

“I nearly killed a man because I can’t control these powers. I know we don’t get along but this is Robin asking Superboy for help in a professional manner, not Tim Drake asking Conner Kent. I can’t go on risking other people’s lives because I can’t control them and I know the good inside of you wouldn’t let people die if you could prevent it.” Tim catches his breath, watching Superboy twist around and sees him giving him a disbelieving look. “This is you getting that chance to prevent deaths from happening, to prevent me from accidently killing someone. I need your help because you know what you’re doing.”

Tim stands his ground when he sees the other boy storming up to him. Half expecting a punch to the face Tim is caught off guard when the other teen jabs him in the chest instead. Superboy is looking down at him with piercing blue eyes. _Wow his eyes are really blue_. The jabbing against his chest makes him back up a few steps, with Superboy looming over him. “You are a manipulative little bastard.” He tells Tim.

Superboy then leans back, his eyes still locked on Tim. “Fine. I will help you, assuming that this isn’t all one big prank and you’re telling the truth.” Tim locks gazes with him and waits for him to continue. “If we do this it doesn’t mean we’re buddies now, I still hate you. This will be Superboy helping Robin as Titan’s, nothing more and nothing less.”

Tim nods in agreement. “Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“We do this, we do it _my_ way. No questions from you and no objections either. I tell you to do something you do it, kapeesh.”

Once again Tim nods, he doesn’t like the rules Superboy is laying down but if it gets him to help him then he’ll go with whatever.

“Good, assuming you don’t have any training schedules for us tomorrow we’ll start then. Bart is visiting Wally so he won’t be around and I'm sure we can get Cassie to leave. The older Titans won’t disturb us.”

“Sounds good.” Tim agrees.

Superboy narrows his eyes at him before turning to leave yet again. Finally he makes it out of the door and out of sight.

Tim lets out a long breath, trying to comprehend on what the hell just happened. _This_ , he thinks, _is going to be extremely interesting._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the start of this chapter was hard to write, I couldn't think of a way for it to flow smoothly together. That's pretty much why there's a couple different scenes, it was just to help to get to the main plot of this chapter. Hopefully it all made sense to everyone. 
> 
> I hope people are still enjoying this story and from here there will be more Tim and Conner scenes coming up. Thanks for reading :D


	13. Training or Arguing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tim and Conner have their first training session together, it goes as well as expected.

Superboy is already in the training room when Tim enters. As he walks towards him Superboy pins him with a look. “Like I said yesterday I will help you with your...problem, but in return I want something back.” He declares to Tim.

Tim arches an eyebrow under his mask. “What do you have in mind?”

“Not sure yet, but when I think of something I’ll let you know and it can be absolutely anything I want alright. You owe me big time for this.”

“Okay.” Tim says, he had been expecting Superboy to want something in return but the idea of absolutely anything made Tim slightly nervous and even slightly annoyed, what the hell could he want?

In front of him Superboy draws back in surprise. “Okay? You’re agreeing just like that with no questions or objections.” He clearly wasn’t expecting Tim to easily comply.

Tim refrains himself from rolling his eyes. Instead he crosses his arms underneath his cape. “Yes Superboy. No questions. No objections. As you said I owe you for this and did you not say yesterday that you didn’t want me objecting against you.”

Superboy’s face is still drawn back in surprise and it takes him a moment to get his wording. “I... Well... Yeah that is what I said and that is exactly what I'm expecting from you.”

Tim can tell that he’s trying to show some form of dominance over him, much like a teacher would to a student. Once again Tim stops himself from rolling his eyes. “I will do what you want only if you show me the same level of respect.”

“What makes you think I won’t treat you with respect?” He says quickly, getting defensive. Tim notices how he’s tensing up.

Tim tilts his head up and taps a finger to his chin mockingly. “Hmm... Let me think why?”

“Asshole. I’m going to remind you that I don’t have to do this you know.” Superboy says with narrow eyes.

Tim drops the act and looks at him. “Yes I know.”

“Good let’s get started because I don’t want to spend any more time with you than I have to.”

\----------------------------------

Tim lands on his back hard. He takes a moment to get his breath back before climbing to his feet once again, this has to be at least the tenth time now.

“I told you to block my punch. I wasn’t even trying that time!” Superboy scolds from in front of him.

Tim lets out a short breath before answering. “I’m trying to, that time you didn’t even give me a chance to focus, you just swung at me!” He throws his hands up in the air in frustration. “I’ve told you, I can’t just make it appear, it comes and goes as it pleases and I have no control over it. Getting me to try and block a punch telekinetically straight away isn’t helping. I thought you would be showing me how to lift and moves objects at first.”

Superboy’s eyes narrow before he turns away and stalks towards the cupboard in the corner. If Tim’s telekinesis didn’t show up near the very beginning he has a feeling that Superboy would have walked out the door just 10 minutes into their session. Tim had accidently sent out a blast of power at the other teen as they lightly sparred to warm up. The blast hadn’t been strong enough to move Superboy, but strong enough for him to feel it and for him to recognise what it was.

Tim focuses on Superboy as he walks back towards him. In his hands he has two tennis balls. “Fine. Stop the ball from hitting the ground.” Superboy says simply.

Tim stops himself from making a comment about Superboy’s teaching methods and instead focuses on the ball. He has no idea what he’s actually doing. Should he extend a hand out and try to use it that way or should he stand still and just focus on the ball?

Superboy tosses the ball upwards and Tim watches it. He thinks about stopping it in mid air, trying to imagine the ball hovering out in the open. He follows the ball as gravity brings it down and wills it to stop moving, he gives into everything he has to make this ball stop in the air. His efforts are futile as the ball hits the ground and bounces a few times before rolling away. Tim lets out an annoyed huff.

“Well that doesn’t surprise me.” Superboy comments. “Again.”

He ignores the comment and concentrates on the ball as Superboy tosses it up. This time Tim stretches a hand out towards the moving ball. He tries imaging hands catching it, stopping it from going any further. When he sees it not working and gravity starting to make its appearance he focuses his fingers to follow the path the ball is making and once again wills the ball to stop moving.

Disappointingly the ball hits the ground and rolls away. Tim lets out a frustrated sound and drags his hands along his face. It’s not working! He pauses his movements when he hears snickering from the boy next to him.

“What's so funny?” He demands.

Not even bothering to cover up the fact he’s laughing Superboy tells him. “You, that’s what. What’s with the whole Yoda like thing?” Superboy then makes an impression of Tim with his arm out before he breaks it by laughing again.

Tim scowls at him and crosses his arms. “How else am I supposed to do it then? The times I have used it has been when I feel the tingling sensation in my hands.”

“You don’t always need you hands for it dumbass. Yeah sure they help, especially with directing things when it's in the air but making things stop, you don’t need them. Seriously, this is child’s play how come you haven’t got it yet.” As if to make his point Superboy grabs one of the abandoned balls and tosses it up, he then crosses his arms over his chest and waits.

For moment Tim can’t help but notice the other boys arms as they tense against his chest, _has his arms always been that muscular?_

He snaps his attention back to the ball when he sees it stop moving. It's hovering there in mid air and level with Superboy’s face. The other teen turns to him and smirks. “See. No hands.”

Tim gives him a full bat glare, not that the other boy would be able to tell because he’s wearing his mask. “Well good for you for using no hands.” He comments dryly. “If you’re not going to take this seriously then forget this ever happened. I thought I asked Superboy for help, not Conner Kent.”

Tim turns around and heads for the door of the training room. He’s already had enough of this, he’s just going to have to find another way to try and get control of his powers since he’s getting no help here. In the back of his mind he can practically hear Jason’s voice saying _I told you so._

“You came to me remember.” Superboy calls out from him behind him which makes him stop walking. “You were the one _pleading_ me to help you out because you’re desperate.”

Tim twists back around to face him. “I am desperate!” He snaps. “I asked you for help because I am that desperate, but if you’re just going to spend the time showing off to me and not taking this seriously then I’m not interested. I wanted you to show me how to control these powers and I expected you take this seriously but obviously I expected too much.”

With that Tim turns around and heads for the door again. He gets a few steps in when he finds himself not being able to move. He tugs against the invisible restraints but remains in the same spot. He lets out an annoyed huff. He can feel the telekinetic energy around him and notices the pressure of it particularly at his arms, where they are pinned to his sides, and around his thighs and feet to keep him from moving his legs.

Before he can say anything to the other teen he’s suddenly being yanked to the side. Tim tries to fight it but finds his efforts useless as he’s completely powerless against the invisible force that’s moving him. His body is sharply spun around and then slammed up against the wall. Tim is momentarily winded and all he can do is take deep breaths and glare at Superboy who is just smirking somewhat evilly at him.

“Let me go.” Tim growls at the other teen.

Superboy acts surprised. “What? I’m showing you how to use the powers. Isn’t that what you wanted?” His voice is full of sarcasm.

Tim sneers at him and tries to squirms around, the pressure around with him tightens and immobilizes him completely. He can’t do anything but watch as Superboy takes slow strides towards him. The smirk still playing on his lips and his hands clenched down by his sides, almost as if he’s proving his point from earlier about not needing hands to use telekinesis.

The other teen stops directly in front of him, just inches away. Superboy puts his hands on the wall next to Tim’s head and leans in. Tim can only look up at the taller boy.

“Let me down Superboy.” Tim demands again.

Superboy just continues to grin down at him in a sadistic way. “What’s the matter Robin, don’t like seeing these powers being used or something? You did ask me to show you how to use them after all.”

“Correction, I asked you to show me how to control them, not to pin me up against the wall.” Tim says angrily.

Superboy shrugs. “Same difference.”

“Not really.”

“What’s the matter Wonder Boy, not liking the fact that I have full control over something you don’t?” Superboy taunts him and Tim sneers at the nickname. “Not liking the idea that you’re still completely helpless against me, powers or no powers.”

Tim clenches his jaw shut to stop himself from making a comment and he ignores the warm pressure around his body which is holding him in place. He tries to ignore how close Superboy is to him, their faces inches apart. Superboy still has that sadistic smirk on his face and his eyes seem to be gleaming, almost as if pinning Tim up against the wall is the best thing that's ever happened.

“I have to ask Robin, why come to me in the first place? Out of all the people to ask you come to _me._ Why?”

Tim decides to amuse him by answering. He knows he isn’t breaking the telekinetic grip that the other teen has him in. “Because I’m desperate and your available. You know what you are doing with this power and I need to learn control over it quickly. I asked you, _Superboy_ , because I thought you would take it seriously and help me. I was wrong, Superboy is as much as an arrogant asshole as Conner Kent is and here I was thinking that they were completely different from each other.”

Tim takes in a sharp breath when he feels the TTK around him tighten. It's starting to feel like he’s very slowly being crushed as the pressure increases and it's getting harder to breath. Superboy just stares intensely at him not saying anything.

“Let me go. Now.”

Superboy’s eyes now narrow at him and he finally lets Tim go and moves away from him. Tim keeps his balance as he straightens up, with the pressure off his chest he can now breathe easier. Looking up at Superboy he tells him. “We’re done here and forget this ever happened. I thought we could work something out, we hate one another but we work in the same team I thought at least that would make you help me. Clearly not.”

Tim pushes past Superboy and heads out the door leaving the other teen alone in the training room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the way they use telekinesis in this story is just the way I imagine the power being used, weather it's right or wrong I'm not really sure, this is just my interpretation of it. 
> 
> Anyway this chapter was fun write and I hope people enjoy it. :)


	14. Boom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Titan's get called to help out with something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in one day! (even though its technically two days by the time this gets uploaded haha) I thought I'd make up for the lack of updates this past week or so, but seriously I really did enjoy writing this chapter even though certain parts of it was slightly difficult to write, but here it is. 
> 
> Be prepared for some angst, especially near the end.  
> Enjoy!

Tim storms into his room and lets out a frustrated sound as he collapses on his bed face down. Why had he thought asking Superboy would be a good idea? They what, lasted an hour together maybe a little longer before it all turned into shit? Just a small part of him had hoped that the other teen would take it seriously and push all emotions aside, much like they did on the field but now he’s just going to have to find another way around it, thankfully batman is away for a few more days yet so it gives him a little bit of time to work something out, though not as much as he would have liked. Maybe he should take up on Jason’s offer after all.

His thoughts are interrupted by his phone ringing. The ring tone, which was the chorus of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, lets Tim know who was exactly calling him without even looking. _Thinking of the devil_ he thinks to himself, he then reminds himself that he needs to change Jason’s ringtone on his phone, the other man chose it because he thought the whole zombie thing was funny.

Tim reaches out blindly for the phone that was sat on his bedside table, eventually grabbing it he answers the call. “What?” He snaps.

He hears Jason laugh on the other side. “Ooh, someone’s touchy.”

“What do you want Jason?” Tim asks into the phone, he can’t really be bothered to deal with his brother's antics right now.

“Just phoning up to see how your bonding day went, that's all. There’s no need to be snappy.”

Knowing that he was phoning for a different reason Tim tells him. “It went as well as expected. Absolutely shit.” Tim pauses, but before Jason can say anything he adds on “Don’t even bother Jason.”

“What? I wasn’t going to say anything.”

“You totally were. You were going to say _I told you so_ and yes you did tell me now I’m regretting it because it was an absolute waste of time as Superboy turned out to be as much as an asshole as Conner could be. I thought perhaps they could actually be different like they are in the field but I was completely wrong.”

Jason stays silent on the other side for a while. Then he speaks up, “You know, my offer is still available.”

“Trust me when I say I’m actually considering it.” Tim tells him. “I don’t know why but I have very little patience when it comes to him. Like seriously, all of B’s training in patience just disappears when I’m around him, I find myself constantly having to hold my tongue from making some kind of comment at him. God that guy is so frustrating!”

Tim hears Jason laughing through the phone. “It's not funny!”

“It totally is Baby Bird.”

Tim chooses not to comment and after a moment Jason calms down and speaks into the phone. “Look Tim, B isn’t due back-”

Whatever Jason was going to say gets cut off by a loud beeping noise from inside Tim’s room. Tim takes a moment to lift his head up and look around his room to find where the repetitive noise is coming from. After a moment it clicks to him that it’s his Titan's communicator, quickly turning over he digs it out from his belt and brings it up to his ear.

“Robin here. What's going on?” He speaks into it.

“Robin! We need a hand, more specifically your hands.” Beast Boy tells him. “There’s a bomb and we need to defuse it before it blows.” Tim can hear the urgency in his voice.

Scrambling off his bed Tim holds up his phone and speaks to Jason. "Jay I gotta go, talk to you later." He doesn't hear Jason's reply because he hangs up and chucks his phone on his bed. He then starts to make his way out of the room. “Where are you and what’s the situation?” He asks Beast Boy using his communicator again.

“Cyborg has been called to help the League with something and we need someone good with tech. You’re the next best option. We’re in Santa Monica, just off to the side of the pier. How quick can you get here? We’ve also radioed Superboy.”

Tim runs through the Tower looking for its other resident. He doesn’t have to search long as he bumps into him in the kitchen. “How quick can you get to Santa Monica?” Tim questions him immediately.

There’s an instant reply. “Pretty quick, couple minutes, 5 minutes at most.”

“Good. Let’s get going.” Tim orders him. They run to the nearest window they can open and Superboy flies out. Reaching out Superboy grabs his wrist in a firm grip and Tim lets the other boy drag him from the window and out into open air and within seconds they are heading in the direction of Santa Monica.

From where he’s hanging, Robin grips the other boy’s wrist tightly. If it wasn’t a serious matter Robin would be annoyed about how Superboy is having to hold him, but now isn’t the time for petty emotions.Though thankfully he doesn't have to worry about the other teen dropping him, they may not like one another but Superboy wouldn't just out right kill him. From the urgency that was in Beast Boy’s voice Robin can tell that this must be a life or death situation, civilians lives are on the line here. He’ll save his resentment for when he’s in the Tower.

He speaks into his communicator. “This is Robin, anyone read me. Superboy and I are on our way, estimated arrival in a couple of minutes. What do you need to do when we get there?”

Robin listens intensely to his communicator; a reply comes back within seconds.

“Robin, there’s a bomb in a Community Centre up on the stage inside. By the looks of it it has a 5 maybe 6 mile blast radius. We tried to defuse it ourselves but it looks to complex and we didn’t want to touch it just in case we messed it up. A timer has been attached on it and it's counting down, from 8 minutes now I believe. Just hurry up and get your asses here. Tell Superboy he can help us with the evac when he arrives.” Beast Boy explains to him.

Immediately questions started to pop up in Robin’s mind. Who put the bomb there? Who would have been smart enough to create a complex bomb that some of the Titan’s can’t defuse? Why put a bomb there?

“Robin, two minutes.” He hears Superboy tell him from above. Robin looks around to see that the place was now coming into view, but before he can see it he can hear it. The chaos that has erupted from within the streets down below. People are screaming, car horns are going off, alarms are going off. What on earth happened here?

Superboy sweeps downwards when he gets close to the pier. He drops Robin off on the pier and flies towards Wonder Girl who is currently in the air shouting something. Robin tucks and rolls onto his feet and is then greeted by a green falcon. The bird then morphs into a human shape and Beast Boy is standing in front of him.

“6 minutes now.” He tells Robin. He then points behind him. “About 50 meters that way.”

Robin nods and starts to run in that direction, as he does he brings up his communicator. “Kid Flash, I need a lift.”

One second Robin is running, the next a force hits him from the side and the world turns to blurs and the second after that he’s in front of a Community Centre. Robin turns to Kid Flash, who is stood next to him practically vibrating, and tells him. “Carry on getting everyone out of the blast zone, I’ll see what I can do.”

Kid Flash nods. “Yeah okay, you see I would have ran it out of there but it's been drilled or glued or something to the ground. I didn’t want to risk moving it just in case it blew up as I did.”

Robin nods. “Good choice, now go!”

Kid flash disappears from sight and Robin walks into the Community Centre, while doing so he changes his communicator to an ear one. It's not a overly sized place, opposite the entrance there's a small stage, in the middle there are lots of chairs some of them upside down or on their sides, some broken which shows that the place was quickly abandoned by it's people. There was a few doors along the sides which Robin guesses are most likely the kitchen and toilets.

Robin stalks forward towards the stage where he sees something on it. Approaching the thing carefully he takes a look at it and can immediately tell that it's a high tech bomb. Whoever made it has certainly got money. Its shape is an octagonal prism, one of the faces there's a timer attached to it and it's counting down, _05:46._ Circling around it there are multiple of wires all different colours. Robin takes a quick glance underneath to see that it's been welded to the top of the stage. Whoever had put this here had certainly not wanted it to be removed.

Robin follows all the wires around it and sees that they all lead into a panel on one of the back faces. Robin crouches down and pulls a variety of tools he’s going to need to use from his belt. Taking a deep breath he slowly opens up the hatch to revel a bunch of wires tangled together. From the first glance Robin can tell only a couple disappear into the main part of the bomb itself while the others aren’t needed.

_05:20_

Robin carefully removes the wires that appear like they aren’t needed so he’s left with the few that are. He notices that they all go deeper into the bomb meaning he’s going to have to strip off the next bit of metal. He cautiously removes the next bit of metal using some special scissors that Batman had come up with to cut through nearly all metals. Once Robin made a hole big enough to see through he shines a torch inside, it reveals more wires inside that are all twisting together.

_04:37_

He removes the torch and works on making the hole bigger. There. Now he can get his hands through. Putting the torch in his mouth he starts to work on the inside of the bomb, he realises that he’s barely even in the bomb so whatever is going to make explode must be within the very centre of it. Robin needs to work out what wires connect together and the ones that go deeper into the bomb. He starts to feel around the inside, mapping what wires go where and others that completely end.

As he does he starts to feel the all too familiar tingling sensation in his hands. _Fucking hell, not now_ , he thinks to himself. This is not the place for his powers to make the appearance. The sensations builds up and Robin removes his hands from the hole in fear that it’ll play up when his hands are inside. He clenches them into fists and takes a couple of deep and controlled breaths, doing so he feels the sensation in his palms level out and dull slightly. That being good enough for him, Robin sticks his hands back inside the bomb and resumes what he was doing.

_04:00_

He slowly begins to remove wires from within the bomb, guessing that they were dead wires and not actually connected to anything he takes them out. He clears out the next section of unneeded wires which leaves him with the ones that go even deeper inside.

_03:15_

Looking inside once again he sees another sheet of metal and like before he works on removing that until the hole is big enough to fit his hands through. Inside that section he makes out 4 different wires which all lead into different places. In the middle of this section he sees a box type thing which all 4 wires come from. As he puts his hands in and starts to feel around the wires he also feels the tingling sensation build up in his hands again, only this time it's up in his fingertips as well as his palms.

_Dammit! Breathe Tim, just breathe and focus on the wires._

As he maps out a certain wire, he's using his fingers to follow the length to see where it connects to from the box, he suddenly starts feeling more than one wire in his fingertips. He peers inside and sees that he’s only holding one wire, so why is he feeling more? The sensation in his fingertips builds up dramatically and he finds himself feeling multiple things all at once. The 4 separate wires, his gloves, the size of the box inside, the edges of the bomb and how the metal is cool to touch but on the inside where the wires are it's warm.

The overwhelming sensation of everything makes Robin involuntary jerk. He yanks his hands out of the bomb but at the same time he hears a couple of popping sounds come from inside. He tenses up and looks into the hole and finds that three of the four wires are now disconnected from the box, they hang uselessly from where the other ends are still connected. Robin snaps his attention to the timer on the front of the bomb to frighteningly see what little time he has left.

_00:30_

_Well shit._

“Robin what's wrong, what’s happened? Have you disabled the bomb?” Wonder Girls voice comes over the com in Robin ear. Did he say that out loud?

“Everything is fine, I’m still disabling it.” He tells her quickly.

_Fucking TK, it's just fucked up everything._

He’s at a lost about what to do, not that he’ll admit that out loud. He can still feel the tingling sensation in his hands.

“We’re coming to get you Robin.” He hears Wonder Girl tell him.

“No!” He shouts. “Don’t. Get away from here and make sure all civilians are away.”

“What’s going on Robin, how long is left?” She demands. Robin doesn’t answer as he shoves his hands back in the hole where the box is. He starts to feel around to see if there are any more wires that may stop it.

“Robin, answer me!”

He glances at the clock. “15 seconds.” He mutters quietly.

“WHAT!” She screams over the coms. “Kid Flash, get him out of there, NOW.”

Robin protests. “No don’t, I can do this.”

Suddenly Kid Flash appears at his side. “Dude we gotta go.”

Robin with his hand still in the bomb glances at his team mate. “Get yourself out of here Kid, I can do this.”

He sees Kid Flash shake his head. “Yeah not happening. Let’s go.”

Robin feels hands on his shoulders, they start to pull him away from the bomb. Making a irrational decision Robin grabs the remaining wire that is connected to the box and yanks it hard. He hears the wire pop and feels it disconnect from the box. Immediately there’s a beeping noise, looking at the timer he sees it flashing _00:00._

That's when hands wrap around his waist and the world blurs for a few seconds. Then suddenly he finds himself sprawled out on some fresh grass miles from where he just was. Looking up he sees a big cloud of smoke and down below he sees buildings crumpling down, trees falling over and in the distance he sees the pier collapsing.

What has he done?

From above him he sees his team mates all staring at the destruction of the town they failed to help. That _he_ failed to help. They all wear stricken faces, and glancing behind him he sees a very large crowd of people, some of them crying, children are screaming and asking hundreds of questions, some look scared while others look confused. Most are upset that they’ve just lost their homes.

He failed. Robin’s heart just drops and his stomach lurches. He rolls onto his hands and knees and throws up what little he had in his stomach. After he was done he feels a hand on his back, rubbing what he guesses was supposed to be soothing circles however they were anything but that. He pushes the hand away and wipes his mouth with the other then he climbs unsteadily to his feet while ignoring the faces of his team mates.

They all stand in silence looking at the destroyed town that they failed to save, the silence was heavy and unsettling until Beast Boy broke it.

“The league knows what had happened, they’ll be sending a few people to come and help clean up and to help getting these civilians to a safe place away from here.” His voice is thick with emotion and Robin can tell he’s trying to keep it together in front of everyone.

“Okay.” Wonder Girls answers him, her voice is sounding the exact same. “We can stay and help out.” Robin sees her send a worried glance towards him. “Robin, why don’t you and Kid Flash head back to the Tower and help out from there, you can send out messages for volunteers and emergency survival kits.”

Robin knew it was supposed to be a suggestion but he can make out the order behind it, he doesn’t protest against it nor does he fight Kid Flash as he manhandles him onto his back so he’s practically getting a piggy back ride. In minutes they arrive at the Tower and Robin climbs off Kid Flash's back. Without any words he starts to slowly head to his room.

It took him longer that it really should have but the numb feeling he’s got is making it hard to move his legs, he feels heavy. When he enters his room he peels off his mask, unclips his cape and somehow manages to get both boots off his feet. He lands heavily on his bed and immediately curls up in a ball clutching his pillow. And as if a dam had just broke he sobs into the pillow.

_It's his entire fault. He just messes everything up. Stupid TK. Stupid Superboy. Stupid bomb. God, what is Batman going to think? This is defiantly going to get him fired from Robin now. First it was just simply having the powers, next it was the roof incident now he blows up an entire city! He has no chance of getting out of this now._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All mistakes made are mine. 
> 
> I hope everyone is enjoying it and I just wanted to say that people who are reading this up to this point I greatly appreciate it, and all the kudos are just brilliant. Thank you XD


	15. Stupid Emotions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tim struggles with his emotions and is forced to face them while someone else joins in on the secret.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the upload delay, the past week has been a bit hectic. But here it is the next chapter.  
> Enjoy :)

Two days. Tim hasn’t left his room in two days. After what had happened he just couldn’t bring himself to face the rest of the team. He has an en-suite bathroom to his room in the tower, meaning he doesn’t have to leave his room to do his business. He’s barely eaten and barley slept because of the images plaguing his mind every time he closes his eyes.

Throughout the last two days his team have been trying to talk to him, trying to coax him out of his hole, but Tim isn’t haven’t any of it. Separately they’ve come up to his door trying to get through to him, they each tell him that it wasn’t his fault, they know he tried his best and it was just one of those things that can’t be helped, they don’t blame him, fortunately they had evacuated everyone meaning no one died.

Tim’s pretty sure that they would have broken into his room by now, but with the amount of security he has on his door they wouldn’t be able to get in. They could potentially just break down the door but he knows they won’t go that far, at least not yet.

His phone has been going off like crazy with spamming messages from a variety of people, most being from his brothers. One particular text he got from Dick, which he had paid extra attention to, had told him that Batman will be away for another week because something else has come up which is demanding his attention. Tim is both relieved and nerved by the news, relieved because it's another week to try and get his shit sorted but nerved because he has no idea what Batman is doing or how he’ll react to what had happened. It's more or less just delaying the inevitable.

Thankfully he has his laptop with him meaning he’s been able to keep up to date with everything going on in the world. According to the news they’re managing to relocate everyone who lost their homes to another city for the time being, with the help of some Titan’s and a couple members of the league they’re cleaning up the place pretty nicely. He also learns that there’s still no confirmation on who made the bomb or who even put it there in the first place. Tim spent a good amount of time looking into it, trying to find whatever he can on manufactures that could have made it and anyone smart enough to construct the technology behind it. He’s also looked into the area to see if anyone had a vendetta against the place but has come up blank. It’s frustrating him because he keeps coming up blank on everything he’s trying.

It’s going on through his third day of his self isolation, he’s at his desk on his laptop going through old case files seeing if he can find anything that could remotely relate to the bomb when he hears knocking coming from his door. He ignores it and resumes typing away, it's just someone attempting to talk him out of his room once again.

When a voice talks through the door Tim immediately stops typing from shock.

“Look Robin-“

Superboy. Why is Superboy at his door? Out of the entire Titan’s he’s the only one that hasn’t stopped by until now.

“I know you’re going to ignore me like you have everyone else but hear me out when I say this. The last few days I have really been thinking over a few things, after seeing what happened to the town when the bomb exploded, I know we’ve all seen worse but it doesn’t make it any easier, it made me question a few things.”

Superboy pauses and Tim works out the hesitance that the other boy is having. Tim mentally wills him to continue, wanting to hear what he has to say out of curiosity. What does he want?

“I’ve come to a decision Robin.” Superboy declares in a much more confident voice. “I wanna start over with you. I want us to try and be friends or at least be civil with one another. I’m sorry for how I had treated you, you came to me for help and I treated you like shit which you didn’t fully deserve, granted that you were also an asshole to me as well but that's not the point right now.

You trusted me with a big secret, I still haven’t told anyone by the way, and I have a feeling I know the real reason behind why you couldn’t disable that bomb. Like I said I want a restart, these past few days I have definitely thought over a lot of things and it would do the team good, if we were able to get along I mean. When you come out of your room, if you want to try again, come find me. This isn’t a bluff and I do want another chance. So consider it. Please.”

Superboy stops talking and then Tim can hear the distinctive sounds of footsteps getting further away from his room. Tim is bewildered by the tone the other teen spoke with, it sounded sincere. Did he actually mean what he said? He wants to be friends? Why? Tim finds himself at a crossroads, what should he believe? He and Superboy have hardly ever seen eye to eye, except a few times on the field when someone’s life was in danger.

The last time they were alone together they barley lasted an hour before shit hit the fan. Tim remembers the way Superboy had used his power to pin him up against the wall to the point of immobility, he remembers the way the TK felt around him a warm pressure against his skin, the way Tim was completely powerless to do anything about it. He recalls how close they were, faces just inches apart. Looking back now he can just imagine Superboy’s face, he didn’t notice it then on how vibrant the other’s eyes were, a shade of blue Tim thinks he hasn’t seen before.

_Wait. What!_

What the hell is he even thinking?! Yeah there’s no denying that the other teen was indeed good looking but that doesn’t change the fact that he has a terrible personality. He’s childish, immature, and arrogant. And dammit why does he have to look so good?! The other boy said he wants another chance, should Tim give it to him or should he just go to his brother for help?

Tim shuts his laptop and drops his head against his desk with a groan. Why are things so complicated? Why are feelings so complicated? He bets this is why Bruce just makes himself devoid of all emotions, that way he doesn’t have to deal with shit like this.

 

 

It’s been a few hours and Tim still hasn’t gotten any further with the bomb mystery and he hasn’t been able to fully concentrate on it since Superboy stopped by. The other boy’s visit had thrown Tim completely off. However he stops thinking about it when he hears more knocking at his door followed by a very familiar voice which makes his heart stop upon hearing it.

“Tim, it’s me.”

_Shit._

“Come on little brother, open up.”

_Dick._

“Timmy, don’t make me force my way in.”

There was a brief moment of silence on both ends. It's interrupted by an over dramatic sigh then some muttering underneath his breath. “Okay you’ve asked for it now.” Which was then followed by a beeping noise and Tim’s bedroom door unlocking.

Tim completely forgot that Dick knew the codes to the security on his door. He does nothing but watches as the man walks into his bedroom and shuts the door behind him before he walks over to Tim’s bed and settles down on it. Dick pins Tim with a look and Tim struggles to understand it. He notices that his brother is in his Nightwing outfit but without the mask. Tim turns back round to his computer so he can avoid looking at his brother.

“Talk to me Timmy, what’s going on? The Titan’s have told me that you’ve been holed up in here for two, nearly three days straight. You haven’t answered any of my or Jay’s texts. You haven’t even spoken to anyone since the explosion happened.”

Tim doesn’t respond to what Dick is saying. He can’t even begin to imagine what the man is thinking about him, how disappointed he is with him for letting a bomb blow up.

“You know no one blames you right. It wasn’t your fault.” Unable to stop himself, Tim lets out an involuntarily scoff at Dick’s comment. He hears Dick sigh before he’s speaking again. “I know you’re blaming yourself-”

“Because it was my fault Dick.” Tim found himself saying, interrupting the older man.

“Tim-”

“Don’t Tim me. You know it's true, so stop lying about it. I should have stopped it, but I didn’t.” Tim is still facing away from Dick and staring at his laptop.

“Dammit Tim. What’s going on with you huh? You’ve been in worst situations than this, you’ve dealt with worse outcomes than this. No one died this time, thankfully, so why are you acting like this?” Dick questions him. His voice sounds strained, as if he’s trying to keep back his anger.

Tim clenches his jaw to stop himself from speaking out, he suddenly finds himself angry. What he’s angry at he doesn’t specifically know. He could be angry at Dick, who barged his way into his room demanding him for answers. He could be angry at the whole bomb situation, he tried to disable it but failed to. He could be angry because he still has yet to gain full control of his powers. It could be anger towards his team, towards Superboy, towards Bruce.

Tim’s snapped out of his thoughts when he feels a hand on his shoulder. Letting this sudden anger take control of him he pushes Dick’s hand off his shoulder and turns around, he pushes Dick away from him. “Just leave me alone! I don’t want to talk about it!”

Dick lands on the bed, looking a bit frazzled at Tim’s sudden outburst. The man quickly gets back onto his feet and looks at Tim like he suddenly understands everything. “Why you angry Tim?”

Tim doesn’t answer him.

“Tim, tell me, why are you angry? Who are you angry at?”

Storming up to his brother Tim shoves him in the chest hard. “I don’t know alright!” He shoves him again. “I’m fed up with this game!” Another shove. “I’m angry at myself. I’m angry at you. I’m angry at the bomb!”

Tim shoves Dick against the wall before turning away. He walks back to his laptop and leans over it, resting his shaking hands against his desk. He can feel the tingling sensation building up around his body, at his hands in particular. _Great, this is all I need right now._

“Tim. Listen to me. I can help you, only if you let me. Tell me why you are angry at yourself. What has happened to make you this angry? Is it because the bomb went off?”

“No.” Tim growls out. “That isn’t why. This is why.”

For the first time Tim fully gives into his power. Twisting around he faces Dick to see the man has walked a few steps closer to him. Reaching out with his arm, Tim aims it at the man and shoves him backwards once again, only this time he isn’t touching him. Tim feels his powers stretching out, how they wrap around Dick’s body and drag him backwards so he’s against the wall once again. He feels his brother fight against the invisible hold, and Tim grips him tighter not letting him move an inch.

Slowly Tim walks towards him, his arm still stretched out with his fist clenched tightly. “You want to know why I’m angry Dick, you want to know what’s going on?” He growls out. “This is why. Them weeks I was captured, I was experimented on. I was a successful experiment, ended up gaining powers. I’ve become a meta-human Dick.”

Tim stops directly in front of Dick as he pauses in talking, he sees and feels Dick squirming in his telekinetic hold but doesn’t let it up. “I’ve become a fucking meta-human Dick. Do you realise what that means. Bruce, Batman, is going to kick me out from Gotham, I’m going to be fired from Robin and I’m going to lose my home Dick. As soon as Bruce gets back it’s game over for me.”

“Tim, listen to me. It doesn’t matter okay. Weather you have powers or not it doesn’t matter. We love you all the same okay.”

Tim sneers at him, he brings his brother away from the wall only to slam him back against it again. “Lies! Stop lying to me!” He screams at his brother.

“Timmy please. Let me down so we can talk this out properly.” Dick pleads him.

Tim looks at him and takes in his appearance. Dick’s hair is ruffled up, eyebrows scrunched together in concern, his eyes showing sadness and concern, his lips turned down at the corners. It's only then Tim realises what he’s doing. Gasping he breaks his hold and moves away from him. _God what was he doing!? He hasn’t hurt him has he? Oh no!_

“Dick...” He breathes out, completely unsure where to look or what to do or say.

“Timmy, it’s okay. I’m fine. You didn’t hurt me, you won’t hurt me.”

From in front of him he sees Dick walk towards him, Tim takes a step back keeping the space between them.

“Dick... Don’t. Please, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

Somehow without even realising it, Dick had moved and managed to wrap his hands around Tim to embrace him in a tight hug. Tim tries to fight against it for a moment but quickly gives up and sinks into the embrace. He feels one of Dick’s hands run up and down his back while the other rests against the back of his head.

“Timmy it's okay.” Dick tries to reassure him. “Everything is going to be okay.”

Tim doesn’t really believe him.

 

* * *

 

 

“You haven’t freaked out as much as I thought you would.” Tim tells Dick as he climbs onto the bed next to him and leans into his side, his brother immediately wraps one arm around his small shoulders and presses him up tightly against his side.

Tim had spent the last 30 minutes telling Dick about everything that has happened to him, starting from the moment he was captured to his escape, then how Jason found out, then all the details about his talk with Zatanna, next about him going to Superboy for help, then about messing up with the bomb and finally ending it at the present time of Dick finding out. Thankfully Dick just listened and hadn’t asked any questions.

Dick glances down at Tim, a small smile appearing on his face but before he could say anything Tim bolts up into a sitting position and sends him an accusing glare while exclaiming, “Unless you already knew! Who told you? Was it Jay?”

Dick grabs Tim and pulls him back down next to him. “Tim, no one told me. I didn’t know that you had powers before today, however I had my suspicions that something was going on with you. You were acting weirdly around us when you returned and especially nervous around Bruce.”

Tim sighs heavily. “Dick, I’m so so sorry that I pinned you up against the wall, I just lost myself for moment. You sure I didn’t hurt you? You weren’t meant to find out like this. God I’m such an idiot-” Tim rambles off not looking at Dick as he talks.

“Timmy listen to me.” Dick squeezes Tim’s shoulders to get his attention. When Tim doesn’t look at him, he cups his hands around the smaller boy’s cheeks and forces him to look up. “Tim, I don’t care that you have powers okay. No you did not hurt me, shocked me yeah, but didn’t hurt me. Don’t keep your emotions bottled up Baby Bird, the results are never good.”

Tim feels tears welling up in his eyes and he blinks rapidly to stop them from falling. Looking up at his brother’s soft look he takes a deep breath and lets it out. “Yeah, okay.”

Dick sends him a warm smile and wraps his arms around him once again. “Good, now talk to me. You’ve told me about what’s already happened. But I want to know how _you_ are feeling.”

“I don’t know what to do Dick. I feel conflicted and lost. I’ve already tried to get help but it's proved to be futile. I need to get these goddamn powers under control. I couldn’t even disable a bomb because of them!” Tim buries his face in his hands.

“You haven’t accepted Jay’s offer yet have you?” Dick asks him.

Tim looks up from his hands and shakes his head. “No I haven’t, considered it yes, but haven’t accepted it.” He lets out a snort. “He wants to shoot me with rubber bullets Dick. I’m not really up for that.”

Being told this information Dick lets out a laugh. “That sounds like Jay alright.”

“That’s why I went to Superboy. I was thinking that he could help me learn how to control them considering he has the same power. But I was wrong, very wrong.”

Dick raises an eyebrow at Tim. “I thought you didn’t like Superboy. Why go to him for help?”

“I don’t.” Tim states firmly. “I went to him because I was desperate, the sooner I have full control over these powers the sooner my life gets easier. It’d be easier to hide them from Batman if I knew how to control them. It was a mistake.”

Dick keeps his eyebrow raised but his lips start to quirk upwards. “Is that the only reason you went to Superboy?”

Tim sits up and gives his brother a confused look. “Well yes, why else would I go to him?”

Dick gives him a knowing look but Tim isn’t catching on. _Why is Dick wearing that look?_ Then in a simple voice Dick says. “You like him.”

Instantly Tim denies it. “No I don’t.”

“Yes you do.”

“Dick, I don’t.”

“Yes you do.”

“No. I. Don’t.” Tim growls out.

“Aw Timmy, you’re blushing.” Dick coos out.

Feeling his face go hot, Tim glares at his brother. “I am not. I don’t like him.”

“It’s okay to have a crush Timmy.” Dick smiles at him, clearly loving the way he’s working him up.

“Why would I like him Dick? He’s an arrogant asshole who is childish and immature and I have no patience for him. Yeah he is good looking but it's ruined by his personality. We barely spent an hour together before we butted heads. He doesn’t like me and I don’t like him.”

Tim finishes his rant and looks at Dick. His brother is laying there with a smug smile, like he knows everything about everything in the world. “Funny you say that because was he not here a few hours ago asking for another chance?”

Tim gapes at him for a moment before asking him. “How do you know about that?”

Dick just waves aside the question. “Doesn’t matter. What matters is that you will go find him later on this evening and tell him you want to take that chance. You may convince yourself you don’t like him, but I can see through you Timmy. You act like an asshole to him to protect yourself and believe it or not he does the same thing back to you.”

Dick sits up and pokes Tim in the chest and gives him a serious look. “That’s your next step Timmy. You go to Superboy and try again, be patient with him and let yourself become friends with him. That way you’ll find that you will learn how to control these powers much quicker and easier.”

Tim simply gawks at him, mouth opening and closing not being able to find any words to speak with.

Seeing that Tim is impersonating a fish Dick laughs. “See Timmy, I _know_ you. Now promise me you’ll come out of your room and join the rest of humanity once again. Then promise me further that you’ll go speak to Superboy and get this mess sorted out. Only you could make a crush so complicated.”

Tim says nothing as he stares back at his brother who is grinning at him like he’s just won a gold medal or something. What he said was not true, he does not like Superboy. That’s just ridiculous. He doesn’t even know the guy on a personal level, just acquaintances, as team mates. What was all that _protecting myself_ crap? God his eldest brother is so confusing sometimes.

“So...?” Dick drawls out.

Tim snaps his attention back to him. “So what?”

“You promise?”

“No. I’m not talking to Superboy and I don’t like him. We don’t even know each other like that. We’re team mates with a mutual hatred.” Tim turns away from him and faces the wall.

Dick rolls his eyes “Whatever you say Timmy. However you are going to talk to him.”

“No I’m not.”

“Tim look at me.” Dick demands him.

Tim makes the mistake when he complies to that demand but it's too late to back out as he meets the older man gaze. Tim sags his shoulders in defeat. “Dick, no.” He whines. “Not the puppy eyes. Anything but the puppy eyes.”

Dick continues to stare at Tim with his trademark puppy eyes. After a long moment Tim puts his head in his hands and groans, Dick then gives a full face grin knowing he’d won.

“Later this evening then, you go talk to Superboy and make up. Then get him to help out with your powers. I will pop by later on too see how you guys are getting along and we’ll go from there.”

Sighing in defeat Tim sighs and nods his head. He looks up when he feels the bed shift, Dick stands up and walks around so he’s in front of him. With no warning Dick bends down and embraces Tim in a crushing hug. “Remember Timmy, no one blames you and it wasn’t your fault. Powers or no powers we all love you the same.”

Before Tim could comment Dick lets him go and heads towards the door, opening it up he looks back over at Tim with a grin. “Well now at least I know the real reason why you came to the tower for the week.”

With that Dick exits the room and leaves Tim all alone once again.

What on earth just happened?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Tim basically exploded from keeping his emotions bottled up, and thanks to Dick he was forced to confront them but along with his emotions for Superboy. 
> 
> Stay tuned for the next bit - Thanks for reading :D


	16. Becoming More Civil With One Another

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tim comes out of his room to join humanity once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I've said this before but in this story this is just my interpretation of how telekinesis could be used and how one could go about trying to learn how to use it. 
> 
> Here is the next chapter I hope you all enjoy and for those who have been waiting here is a bit more Tim and Conner interaction.

As he promised Dick, Tim leaves his room and joins humanity once again. He has a quick shower to freshen up and chucks on some clean clothes before going out in search for his team. It doesn’t take very long and it wasn’t a surprise when he finds them all in the TV room. They have multiple pizza boxes stacked on the table which was surrounded by different bottles of drink and they have a film playing on the TV which looks something like Indiana Jones.

Looking at his friends, Tim wonders why they’ve even bothered putting a film on as none of them are paying attention to it. At this particular moment in time Bart and Superboy seem to be having a competition on who can down the drink the quickest while Cassie plays referee, occasionally shouting at them if she thinks they’re cheating.

Tim hovers around in the door way unsure on how to proceed into the room. Should he just walk in and sit down like everything is alright? Maybe he should apologise for his behaviour over the last few days? Perhaps he should –

“Tim!”

His thoughts are disrupted when he spots Cassie looking at him with a wide smile. Beyond her he sees Bart and Superboy finishing their drinks and looking his way. Bart begins to grin and Superboy frowns, most likely because he lost the downing competition or just maybe it's because Tim is there.

He looks back at Cassie when he sees her stand up and starts to walk over to him. He doesn’t move and lets her come to him, as she reaches him she raises her hand up with a soft smile and jerks her head over at the couch. “Come on, we have plenty of pizza left and I bet your hungry. I’m sure we got some coffee in here somewhere as well.” Tim slowly takes her hand and lets Cassie drag him to the couch. She pushes him down and shoves a plate on his lap. “Eat.” She orders him before settling down next to him. In his peripheral vision he sees Bart and Superboy settle on the adjacent couch, both now looking at the screen in front of them.

As the four of them watch the TV Tim takes his time eating the pizza and starts thinking of a way to apologize to them. He’s ignored them for two nearly three days so they at least deserve an apology. Finishing off his 4th slice of pizza, he turns to give Cassie his attention but when he opens his mouth to speak she leans forward and places a finger against his lips.

“No. No apology is needed Tim okay. You don’t need to apologize to us, you will never have to, we’re your team and we fight together. No apologies are needed.” She tells him a serious look. Cassie waits for Tim to nod in understanding before removing her finger. Giving a satisfied sound she leans back and focuses her attention back to the movie. “Good.”

Tim carries on looking at Cassie even though she’s no longer looking at him. “Thanks Cassie.” He says quietly before turning his attention back to the film as well and he misses the way Cassie’s lips turn upwards at the corner. He appreciates his team, especially in moments like this when they don’t ask questions and demand answers that they deserve or are curious to know. They don’t pry which Tim is grateful for.

After the second movie of the night Cassie calls it break time. She gets up and leaves for the bathroom and Bart apparently takes it upon himself to clean up the room while they wait for Cassie to come back. Despite Bart’s whizzing in and out of the room, it just leaves Tim and Superboy. Then the two are fully left alone when Bart announces he wants some Japanese candy and continues to disappear out the door.

The silence that falls between the two is heavy and Tim is left feeling uncomfortable with it. He sneaks a glance over at the other teen to see him fiddling with a cup in his hands. He thinks to himself now would be a good time to talk since they’re alone but before he could get a word out Cassie is shouting from down the hallway. “You boys want anything; I’m heading to the kitchen. This is your only chance so think wisely and quickly.”

“I’m good thanks Cassie.”

“Cup of coffee please.”

The heavy silence appears back in the room again and Tim chances a look at the rooms other occupant to see that he’s already looking right at him. They make awkward eye contact before quickly turning away from one another and Tim can feel himself getting hot, god he hopes he isn’t blushing. _Later, I’ll have to ask him later._

Cassie comes striding into the room with a mug in each hand, she hands one over to Tim and he gratefully takes it. It's been a few days since he last had a cup of coffee and savours every sip he takes. Once again as Cassie settles down beside him and then a rush of wind could be felt, Bart appears on the couch adjacent to Tim holding a paper bag presumably full of Japanese candy. Once they’re all settled they start up the next movie and watch it in silence.

 

Once the movie ends and now deciding on a next movie Tim looks over at Superboy and gets his attention. “Superboy, may I talk to you? Privately.”

The other teen looks momentarily startled at being pointed out all of a sudden but quickly composes himself and nods as he gets to his feet. Tim does the same and shoots Cassie an apologetic look. “This won’t take long, just need to talk to him about something.”

Tim leaves the room with Superboy on his heels. Neither of them talks until they’re away from the TV room down the hall where neither of their friends can hear them.

It's silent and awkward as they face each other, Tim not knowing what to say to get the conversation they need to have going and Superboy not really knowing what Tim has in mind. Unlike it would have been a few days ago the tension between them appears to be hesitant and awkward where as a few days ago it would have been full of anger and hatred.

Surprisingly it was Superboy to break the silence first by asking, “Have you thought about what I said earlier?”

Tim nods. “I have and I have decided that another go would be good.” He tells him not looking up at him.

“Okay, that's good I guess, we - .”

“Why?” Tim cuts in, he looks up at the other teen. “Why do you want another chance?”

“Why are you giving me the chance?” Superboy shoots back, irritation seeping in his voice.

_Well this is a great start._ Tim glowers at the taller teen. “You came to me asking for another chance. I just want to know why.”

“I told you why. After what happened with the bomb, I took some time to think over a few things and the way I treated you was one. It wasn’t fair for me to act like that to you. I let emotions get in the way of what was important. I want us to try and be friends for the sake of the others, us always butting heads isn’t good for them. But now I want to know why you’ve agreed to this, to give me another chance.” Superboy narrows his eyes at Tim and Tim mimics the action.

“Well as you said it would benefit the team much better if we tried to get along but also because I need help with these powers before Batman returns.”

Superboy studies him with a piercing look for a moment and Tim does everything he can to stay still under the other’s gaze. “Do you really want to do it though? I’m getting this vibe that you don’t want to do it, unless I’m reading the situation all wrong. Like I said I want another chance but if you’re just gonna force yourself to do it then don’t bother.” He says with accusation.

Tim puts his hands up in placate gesture. “I never said I didn’t want to do it, I’m here because I do want to do it alright. I need help and you’re the best option I have. Nightwing said some things to me which put my head on straight and got me to stop being a self pitying pathetic piece of shit.”

“You’re not a pathetic piece of ass.”

Tim is drawn back by Superboy’s comment, he raises an eyebrow and looks at him sceptically.

As if realising what he had just said Superboy rubs the back of his neck and looks down at the floor and Tim can see tints of pink appearing on his cheeks. _He’s cute when he’s embarrassed – wait what? Dammit._ Tim snaps back to attention when Superboy starts talking again.

“I mean after what had happened you have the right to act like that, you may have over done it a little but we’re all allowed to feel guilty...” He trails off still looking down at the ground.

There was a few beats of the famous awkward silence as the two teens look at everything other than each other. Deciding that this conversation isn’t really getting anywhere Tim speaks up once again. “Tomorrow then?” He asks.

Superboy looks up at him with a confused expression. “What?”

“Tomorrow, to start practising.” Tim tells him simply.

“What? Oh, oh yeah. Yeah that sounds good.” He agrees unsteadily.

“Good, we should probably get back in there.”

“Yeah of course.”

Neither teen moves from his position. They’re both shuffling on their feet clearly waiting for the other to make the first move. Eventually realising how pathetic they are both being Tim turns and starts to head back to the TV room. Entering the room both Cassie and Bart look up at them from their seats, Bart raises an eyebrow in question while Cassie for some reason smirks knowingly. Tim and both sit down in their places next to the others, before either of them could start questioning them Superboy asks. “So what film have we decided on?”

Cassie narrows her eyes in annoyance before answering him. “Bart decided on Journey to the Centre of the Earth.”

Tim raises his eyebrows in surprise. “Really Bart, didn’t expect that to be your kind of thing.”

Bart gives a nonchalant shrug. “Something different for a change.”

The room falls silent as the film begins to play out.

* * *

 

“So you have no idea how to control your powers?”

“For the last time Superboy, no I don’t. If I did I wouldn’t need your help.”

“Okay calm down, just asking.”

“Well ask something more appropriate.”

Tim lets out an annoyed huff. It really is proving to be a challenge to try and stay civil with the other teen when all he wants to do is say this was a waste of time once again and leave. The two teens found that they had the Tower to themselves and decided to start up on Tim’s practice like they agreed to yesterday.

“In the past when your powers were about to manifest what did you feel? Was there any build up to it or did it just happen?”

Tim can tell Superboy is trying, he’s trying to get a grasp of what Tim is going through and how to help. Tim can understand that the other teen needs to know everything in order to be able to help him but it's frustrating because they aren’t making any progress. “Most of the time I feel a tingling sensation build up around my body, my hands in particular. That gives me some kind of warning that it's appearing, sometimes I can stop myself from doing anything and other times I can’t.” Tim tells him.

“What were you feeling when the sensation started, like emotional wise. Happiness, anger, sadness?”

“It’s been different each time. I’ve accidently used it when I’ve been relaxed, like when we’re watching movies, it's happened when I’ve been in the shower, it's happened when I’ve been attacked or have gotten defensive.” Tim tells him, not really knowing where Superboy is going with this.

He looks over at Superboy to see him with a hand on his chin and looking down at the ground with furrowed eyebrows; he’s in that classic thinking pose. After a few moments the other teen looks back up at him. “Right this is what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna work out what makes you trigger it every time and then we’ll get you focusing on that until you master it. After you’ve handled triggering your powers we will then work on how to use them in different ways.”

Tim looks at him for a moment before commenting. “That doesn’t seem to be a very sturdy plan.”

Superboy crosses his arms against his chest and frowns. “Yeah well that's all I got at the moment so deal with it.”

Tim bites his tongue to stop a harsh comment from slipping out. _Civil, gotta be civil._

“Have there ever been any times when you’ve had full control over your powers?” Superboy questions him.

“Three times I think. I once levitated a bowl of popcorn from my hands, I pinned Nightwing up against the wall in anger and I managed to ‘deactivate’ the TK protection layer when I was in the shower. If I feel the sensation starting up I usually try and control my breathing which sometimes helps to stop it.”

“You pinned Nightwing against the wall?” Superboy’s asks in disbelief.

“I didn’t mean too. I was angry and just gave in to the sensation that was building up.” Tim says getting defensive.

“Right, okay. Anyway, when you levitated the popcorn how did it feel?”

“I felt everything inside the bowl, every bit of popcorn, the coldness of the bowl and I could feel it's shape from just holding the bottom of it. Then when it left my hands it still felt like I was holding it even though I wasn’t.”

Superboy nods as if understanding everything Tim is describing. “Robin, that’s basically it. We can use the power to feel everything around us when it's out of reach or out of sight; it's an extension of us, like another pair of hands. We can grab things, move things and protect things. It comes with a lot, just have to learn how to use it.”

“And that’s why I asked you to help me to control it. How do I turn it off and on at will?” Tim asks impatiently. They just seem to be tiptoeing around the actual problem and it's starting to get on Tim’s nerves.

“Right, to start off with I want you to levitate the ball from the ground into the air and hold it for a few seconds.” Superboy produces a tennis ball from nowhere and puts it down on the ground in front of Tim.

Tim sighs. “It's not going to work.”

“You don’t know until you try.” Came back the optimistic reply. “Just focus on what the ball would feel like if you had it in your hand, try and trigger the power inside of you.”

Tim rolls his eyes and concentrates on the ball. He knows what the ball should feel like in his hands, and he imagines picking it from the ground. After a few more seconds of absolutely nothing he re-focuses his attention on his body and tries to bring up the tingling sensation, but when nothing happens he gives up and sends an irritated look at the other teen.

“It’s not working, I don’t feel a thing.”

“Right let’s try a different approach then. You just told me that you pinned Nightwing against the wall because you were angry, when you fought against the thug on the rooftop was you feeling angry or at all defensive?”

Tim internally winces at the memory on the rooftop but recalls back to it. “I mean I guess I was feeling defensive, he was trying to beat me up so I fought back but nearly sent him to his death instead.”

“Forget the death bit, that’s not relevant right now. The point was you were feeling defensive, while against Nightwing you were feeling angry.” Superboy points out again.

Thinking it through, Tim starts to catch onto what the teen was suggesting. He thinks back his time with Jason, his powers had been triggered when he tried to get the older man off his shoulders, then again when his brother was tickling him. The tingling sensation had appeared when Bruce corned him making him a little defensive. Then they appeared when he was disabling the bomb.

If his powers appear when he’s trying to defend himself, that doesn’t make sense for the other times they’ve appeared. For instance when he’s been watching movies, he hadn’t felt threatened then but they still appeared without permission.

“You think my powers appear when I’m feeling threatened and in defence they get triggered?” He asks him to see if he’s right. It’s confirmed when Superboy nods. “That makes sense but then again doesn’t because my powers have shown up when I’ve been relaxed.”

“Hmm... I’m not sure about the times you’ve been relaxed but I bet we can defiantly work on your control over them when you’re feeling defensive.” Superboy says and Tim shoots him a look.

“You want to fight me?”

Superboy just shrugs. Before Tim could fully register what was happening Superboy was swinging his fist towards Tim’s face and Tim thanks his reflexes for being quicker than his brain because he barely dodges it. “Dude! What the hell?”

“Come on Robin fight me, I’ll go easy on you.” The teen replies while throwing another punch.

Tim blocks it and steps backwards. “How is this going to help?”

“You’ll see.”

This time Superboy launches a kick and Tim ducks and rolls to avoid getting hit. Grabbing his staff Tim decides to humour Superboy and fight him. They dance about for most of it, with Tim mostly dodging whatever Superboy throws at him. He starts blocking and sending a few hits of his own when the other teen advances against him harder, forcing him to strike back. One particular hit to the stomach makes Tim fall flat on his back.

He glares up at Superboy. “What the hell was that? I thought you said you were going to go easy on me.”

Superboy smirks. “Where’s the fun in that?”

Sneering at him Tim jumps up to his feet and starts attacking the other teen at a much more ferocious rate. It’s not like he’ll be able to hurt him because he’s a Kyrptonian. Another a few minutes go by and without even realising it Tim starts to feel the tingling sensation build up around his body. Realising what Superboy was really trying to do Tim backs away from him and glares.

Seeing Tim’s movements Superboy smirks. “You feel it right now don’t you?” Tim clenches his fists and starts focusing on his breathing. “Don’t do that, engage the power.”

Tim doesn’t get the chance to react before he’s being slammed down against the ground and pinned there. Superboy’s face appears above him, looking all serious as he looks down. “Use the power to push me off of you. You can do it as you’ve done it before. Push me off.”

Tim struggles against the other boy’s weight trying to relieve some of it, but the other teen only pushes against him harder. Tim can feel the sensation growing around his front where Superboy is pinning him.

“Come on Robin, push me off.”

Superboy shifts above him and an arm appears against his neck, slowly putting pressure on it. Tim grunts as he tries and pushes the other body off him with his hands. The pressure on his neck increases and breathing is becoming slightly harder. Tim focuses on the sensation around his body and tries to direct it to his hands, he begins to feel it build up at his palms where they lay against Superboy’s chest.

“Get off me.” He hisses and with a final push with his hands he releases the power there and the body from on top him disappears allowing Tim to breathe easily once again. Tim takes a moment to get his breath back before sitting up, opposite him he sees Superboy getting to his feet.

“See Robin, you can do it, you just need a little push. When you don’t think about your powers they appear, then when you feel them building they only increase. When you feel that power building, don’t hold it back just let it out. You were reluctant to use them then, why?”

Tim looks up at him as he stands over him, offering a hand to help him up. Tim takes it and is easily hauled to his feet. “I wasn’t reluctant.”

“You totally were, you were trying to push me away without your powers. Either way you do have strong powers, that push you gave me sent me flying backwards once you released it.”

Tim doesn’t comment, he only stands there and stares at the teen unsure about what to do next.

“For now until we next meet up I want you trying to levitate this ball. Keep on trying until it happens, think about different situations and hopefully something will trigger it off.” Superboy holds up the tennis ball from earlier and Tim takes it.

“You know this time was much more successful than last time we were together.” Tim comments as he fidgets with the ball.

“Yeah well, I had thought through some things and decided to try again. Just trying to work out a way to help ya out. You’re usually the one doing all this shit.”

“True but now I, we, have a direction to go in. I just need to feel threatened and or get defensive for it to be triggered until I can learn how to turn it on without them feelings. However it still doesn’t make sense for the times it's appeared and I haven’t been feeling them feelings.”

“Yeah I guess, I’m sure you’ll work it out. You always do.” Superboy comments and Tim looks up at him to see a smirk across his face.

Tim rolls his eyes. “Whatever. How about tonight we try again?”

Superboy looks at him, smirk still there. “Wanna spend time with me that badly do you?”

Tim snorts. “Please, the sooner I get a handle on this the sooner I can get away from you.” He turns around and exits the training room and heads for his own bedroom.

There's a lot he's got to think over.


	17. Practice Makes Perfect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tim and Superboy practice with Tim's telekinesis.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So a couple of things here,  
> First one being I have used some events from comics, nothing in to much detail just referring back to them. I hope I've got the scenes right but apologise if they are wrong. It's just how I imagine Tim would have been feeling at the time with these certain events. 
> 
> Second thing, this chapter is mostly about Tim trying to work out his power, its just giving me a chance to play around again with how I think this certain power could potentially work. I hope it all makes sense as you read it and I have to say this chapter was fun to write.
> 
> Third thing, I feel like I've dragged this on for long enough now and I just want to get the ball rolling with the main story idea I have in mind. So that's the reason this chapter jumps slightly between scenes. I hope everyone is still enjoying reading this story because I am having fun writing it still.

Tim’s sat on his bed staring at the tennis ball he got from earlier while thinking about everything that had happened in the training room with Superboy. One thing that had come out of the training session was that they’ve managed to pinpoint when Tim feels a certain way his powers appear. It makes sense really, when he’s feeling threatened or defensive they come out to play but it doesn’t explain why they appear when he’s relaxed and not doing anything dangerous.

He thinks back to the fight they had and Tim realises once again that Superboy’s plan all along was to make Tim feel threatened to activate his powers and for him to use them. The way he had pinned him to the floor their bodies pressed tightly together and his hands resting against the strong chest and only if they weren’t fighting–

_No. Stop it Tim, you’re getting off track here, get your mind out of the gutter and back to the problem at hand._

The training session could have gone better really, it could have been planned out a bit more and could have had more structure to it but that’s just Tim opinion. As Superboy pointed out earlier he is usually the one to plan training sessions, but now since he’s not in control he’ll just have to suck it up and deal with whatever the other teen comes up with. He went to him for help so he has to take what’s been offered. Beggars can’t be choosers as they say.

Tim turns to his attention back to the ball in front of him. He thinks about what Superboy had said about thinking of different situations to trigger it off. He quickly shuffles through his memories trying to pick out a particular one when he felt threatened and had to act defensively. There have been a lot of times but he can’t seem to focus on one in particular.

He quickly decides to try a different path, he thinks of a memory where he has had to deal with strong emotions all at once. What memory does he have that’s left him feeling emotionally wrecked? One memory that comes up in particular is his father’s death. It brings a whole load of sadness and it also brings up anger, fear and desperation. He had been angry at Boomerang, angry at Batman and most of all angry at himself. If he hadn’t of left that night he could have defended his dad, he could have stopped what was going to happen and damn if he didn’t want to see his dad alive one more time to tell him how much he loves him and how he’s sorry. The guilt that lies with him is extremely heavy and he has never been able to forgive himself for what had happened and of course he's upset because his father had gotten murdered.

Being caught up with his emotions Tim was late to realise that it was working, there was the familiar tingling sensation building up in his hands and at his chest. It feels warm against his cold skin, it pools mainly around his chest, slowly heating him up as if to help his aching heart. Trying to keep up the sensation Tim focuses on the ball. Like earlier he tries to imagine it being picked up by a hand, he stretches his fingers out towards it, letting his powers stretch out to it.

Getting annoyed because nothing was happening he started to chant out, “I want to levitate the ball, I want to levitate the ball, I want to levitate the fucking ball,” as if it's going to help him focus. With one last try he thinks about his father’s corpse with the boomerang sticking out of it, he thinks about the anger towards himself for letting it happen and he imagines his powers stretching and grabbing the ball and lifting it up in the air.

All his thoughts stop when he feels a rough texture in his hands, looking down he finds his hands empty but when he looks up he sees the ball right in front of eyes. Levitating. He twists his hand around and the ball follows the motion. He flicks his hand up as if he’s just chucked the ball upwards, sure enough the ball follows through and goes higher into the air and stops in front of his face.

Tim grins. It worked. It was a horrible way for it to work but it happened. Reaching out he grabs the ball from the air and he feels the sensation stop in his hands and he recognises his powers disappearing. He thinks through everything he just done and comes to a conclusion. His powers don’t just manifest when he feels threatened or defensive, it's from emotions overall. Any sudden surges of emotion they come into play. But it still doesn’t explain the reason they may appear when he’s somewhat content.

He wipes his hands across his face and feels them come away slightly wet, he realises that he had been crying. It doesn’t matter how long ago his father’s death was it will always make him upset. Tim grabs his laptop and starts going through some case files, trying to distract himself some any unwanted thoughts. He’ll just work through until he has to meet up with Superboy again.

* * *

 

“I think I know what it is. Why my powers come into play at different times. I think they are connected with my emotions. If I have a strong surge of emotion they appear, though it still doesn’t explain all the other times but I think that's mostly it.” He explains to Superboy.

“Right, I guess that’s something. You made the ball levitate?”

“Yes. I thought about past events which gave me strong emotions. That triggered my powers and allowed me to make the ball float.”

“What did you think about?” Superboy asks curiously.

Tim just shakes his head and waves aside the question. “It doesn’t matter.”

“But it does matter, because if it made your powers appear then you’ll need to re-think about that event each time. What was it?”

“I told you it doesn’t matter. I’m not getting into it.” Tim snaps at him, just because they have now gone onto some kind of mutual civil ship that doesn’t mean Tim will be sharing all his life stories with him.

Superboy puts his hands up in a surrendering gesture “Fine, whatever. Let’s get started.” Superboy moves so he’s standing right in front of Tim. “Like earlier I want you to push me off with your TK. Imagine whatever you did earlier and push me away.”

Tim narrows his eyes at him. “Surely we should be working with the tennis ball instead.”

Superboy gives him a dry look. “Just do it.”

In a matter of seconds Tim finds himself pinned against the floor by the other teen. A knee is digging into his lower back while his arms are pinned next to the sides of his head.

“Right, unlike last time you’re now facing down. What you gotta do is imagine your powers coming off from your back and throwing me off long enough to right yourself.”

Tim closes his eyes and tries to trigger off his TK once again. He doesn’t imagine his father’s death this time but something else that comes up. When Jason Todd attacked him and nearly killed him. He remembers the emotions he was feeling easy enough, desperation, fear, anger. Jason had attacked him, called him replacement, unworthy of the Robin title. He remembers pleading Jason to listen to him as he dodged the older man’s attacks. Batman needed a Robin, he just happened to be there and because of that fact he worked harder, trained harder, tried to be smarter all just to be the perfect Robin for Batman. He wasn’t chosen like the two before him.

Tim recalls the emotions as he remembers the way Jason had slashed at him with a knife, shot him with bullets. His hero, _his Robin_ , was talking to him like he was a piece of trash and not thinking rationally. It had hurt Tim to see the person he idolized treat him in such manner.

With that Tim feels the sensation build up in his body and immediately he thinks about directing to his back. He feels his powers shift over him, giving him a warm protection layer as they build up. After a couple seconds Tim jerks violently in Superboy’s hold and unleashes his TK at the same time and just like that Tim is free to move as he pleases. Spinning around he sees Superboy floating above him with a smirk.

“Got it quicker that time.” He touches down on the ground and holds out a hand to Tim.

Tim ignores it and gets to his feet on his own. “What’s next?”

“Force field. A couple times you’ve mentioned about a protection layer coming and going. We’re going to work on how you make it appear and disappear by will.” Superboy tells him.

“And how will you know if it's there or not?” Tim asks him.

Superboy leans forward and grabs Tim’s wrist. “I will feel it, that’s how.”

Tim tries to pull his wrist of Superboy’s grip but it doesn’t work. “What’s with all the touching? Isn’t there anything we can do that doesn’t require you touching me?” Tim asks him with a glare. _Not that he minds the touching – his hands are really soft – but he isn’t going to admit that out loud._

“Just do it. Try and pry my hand off your wrist.”

Tim focuses on where Superboy is holding him. This time he thinks about the emotions he went through when Bruce had asked to adopt him. It wasn’t long after his father’s death when Bruce had asked him. He had been overwhelmed with happiness and disbelief. It had made Tim feel wanted and loved once again, it showed him that Bruce wanted him around. It made his heart swell in so much joy that he had just cried while hugging Bruce, no words describing how happy he was.

Even quicker this time Tim feels the tingling developing in his body, it starts from his chest and he focuses it down to his wrist. He feels Superboy’s grip on him loosen and he uses his powers there to push him even further, eventually pulling him off altogether. He feels his other wrist get captive in a hold and he wills his powers to spread across his body to his other wrist. Doing the exact same as the other he pulls Superboy’s hand off his wrist.

“Good. You’re getting the hang of it.” Superboy praises him and Tim has to work to keep the smile off his face.

“What’s next?” He asks again, this time a little more eagerly. It’s kind of exciting now that it's getting easier to control. He just hopes he can keep it up.

“Eager are we?” Superboy mocks him.

Tim scowls at him. “It’s starting to work. I’m allowed to be happy because of that. However I need to know how to stop it when it appears when I don’t want it to. Any suggestions?”

“Not sure yet, I’ll let you know when I think of something.” Superboy tells him.

Tim lets out a huff. “Helpful.”

“Hey, I’m trying here alright.” Superboy snaps.

“And surprisingly some of it is working.” Tim comments.

“What? Don’t think I could be a good teacher?”

“Would it be a shock if I said no?”

“Well sorry mister-know-it-all, we all can’t be perfect. If you don’t like my methods you can find someone else.”

Tim scowls at him. _And we’re back to this argument again._ “You know I can’t go to anyone else and for the record I am not perfect.”

There was a moment of silence between the two as they glare at one another. “The next time we meet up we can work on stopping movement on the ground. When you start to get the hang of that we’ll move onto something a bit more complex. Is that okay with you or do you want me to change that plan of action?” Superboy’s voice was dripping with sarcasm by the end of that end sentence.

Tim narrows his eyes at him before answering. “That’s fine. Tomorrow then?”

“Sounds good to me.” Superboy says before heading to the door to the training room and proceeding to leave.

Tim can’t help but let his gaze lingers at Superboy’s ass and legs as he walks. Realising he was full on staring he looks away and starts for the door following behind the other teen.

* * *

 

In the morning of the following day Tim finds himself in the training room with Superboy once again. Thankfully it seems to be getting easier to will his powers to appear each time now, he doesn’t have to think as much to connect with his emotions from past events. He and Superboy have been working together for about an hour now, Tim’s been trying to stop a moving object with his TK and it's proving to be a lot harder than everything else has been.

As Tim takes sips from a bottle of water he looks over at Superboy. “Man I’ve got to give you credit for this. You make it look so easy.”

The other teen just shrugs. “I’ve had it since I’ve been alive so I’ve had chance to practice with it.”

“True.” They make brief eye contact before looking away again.

That’s another thing, Tim thinks. They’ve been pretty civil with one another over the last two days, a major change in what they were like before the bomb blew up, no major insults have been exchanged and surprisingly minimal arguments have happened. He can’t say what Superboy’s reasons are but Tim is being civil just because he had promised Dick and because they had agreed it would benefit the team better if they acted like they got along, even when they aren’t present.

“Try again?” Superboy asks holding up the tennis ball.

Tim nods and walks into the centre of the room while Superboy moves himself a fair distance away from him. “Remember to focus on the ground in front of the ball just before it rolls onto it. Work on slowing it down then stopping it fully.” Superboy coaches from where he’s stood.

Tim just nods and motions for him to get on with it. He watches as the other teen bends low and rolls the ball towards him at a medium pace. Tim watches the line the ball is rolling in and follows it before picking a specific spot to focus on. He’s able to stretch his powers out to that point in the ball’s line, when he feels the ball pass over his TK he works on trying to slow it down by latching on to it. With his hands he’s able to feel the ball as it rolls closer to him, he uses his powers to try and push against the ball in the opposite way it’s moving. When it doesn’t seem to be working he tries again and pushes harder.

He stops trying when the ball bumps into his feet. He looks up at Superboy and gives him a disappointed expression. “It’s not working.”

“You just have to keep practicing.”

Tim rolls his eyes to that response. Easy for him to say. “Can we move onto something else instead?” He asks.

Superboy opens his mouth to reply but is cut off by a phone ringing. The tune is bright and cheery and Tim immediately recognises it. He walks over to where he had left his phone by his water bottle and picks it.

“Hello.”

“Timmy!” A cheery voice greets him from the other side.

“Hey Dick. What's going on?”

“We need you to return back to the Manor, preferably today.” Dick’s voice drops low and serious which makes Tim worry slightly.

He frowns and asks. “Why what’s going on? Is everything alright?”

“Everything is fine, it’s just that B has come back today and wants to talk to you. Plus Jason and I want a word with ya before you see him.”

Tim feels his stomach drop at the mention of Bruce. “Did he say what he wanted to talk about?”

“Afraid not. He’s gone to WE for a few hours. Hasn’t even spoken to us properly, just asked where you were and that he wanted to talk to you and by the looks of it it’s something serious Timmy.”

Tim sighs and rubs a hand down his face. “Alright let me pack a few things then I’ll be on my way.”

“Okay see you soon.”

“Bye.” Tim hangs up the phone and lets out a moan. He doesn’t know if he’s ready for another confrontation with Bruce just yet.

“What’s wrong?” Superboy asks. Was that concern appearing in his voice?

“Batman is back and he wants a word. So sorry to cut this short but I’ve gotta go.”

“No worries. You’ll be fine. If you feel it playing up just take a few deep breaths.”

“When you next free? We could meet up in couple days time to practice again.”

“Sounds good.”

“Okay, see you then.” Tim grabs his things before leaving the room. He quickly goes to his bedroom and packs a few things in his rucksack before having a quick shower. He dries himself off and puts on some clean clothes before heading for the bat plane which he had left here when he first arrived at the Tower what must be last week now.

Soon enough he’s up in the air and on his way back to Gotham. Tim lets himself be distracted during the journey, he looks over all the scenery down below, he plays some of his music his phone and he generally just lets his mind wonder. He just avoids thinking about what Bruce may want to talk about because it will only end up with him stressing out about it.

He makes it back to the Manor in short time and proceeds to head upstairs from the cave. As soon as he’s in the Manor he’s ambushed by both of his brothers. No one says anything, his brothers look at him expectantly and he looks at them expectantly.

Giving up with the silence Tim asks them. “Is Bruce here?”

Dick nods. “Yeah, we wanted to ask you how you’re doing and if you want us to be there with you.”

Tim takes a moment to consider it. He has no idea what Bruce what's to talk about, since they already know perhaps they could potentially help him in keeping Bruce in the dark a little while longer. Quickly deciding that’s the only reason he needs he nods at his brothers. “Yeah, if you guys don’t mind I want you to be there.”

Dick wraps an arm around his shoulders and squeezes. “No problem Timmy, we’ll be there.”

“You didn’t answer the other question Baby Bird.” Jason scowls at him. “Are you alright?”

Tim immediately nods. “I’m fine Jay.”

Jason doesn’t look convinced but as he goes to say something he’s interrupted by Dick. “Did you do what you promised me you would do?”

Tim avoids eye contact with his eldest brother. “Yes Dick I did. We have now developed some sort of civil ship between us and he has been helping me slightly.” The arm around Him squeezes him tight.

“Good I’m glad.”

“What’s happening now?” Jason asks looking confused as he’s not sure what they’re talking about.

“Timmy here has now teamed up with Superboy, that’s what.” Dick beams at the second eldest in the room.

From the corner of his eyes he sees Jason smirk evilly. Thankfully before Jason could say anything another voice speaks out instead. “Excuse me Masters, but Master Bruce is waiting for Master Tim in the kitchen.” Alfred speaks out to them.

They all nod before leaving the room and head for the kitchen. As he gets closer Tim starts to feel his nerves coming out to play. _What if this is just Bruce telling him to get out of The Manor, telling him he’s no longer allowed in Gotham? This could be his final moments in here and both Dick and Jason are here to witness it._

Tim feels a hand on his shoulder and squeezes in what he thinks is supposed to be reassurance. “Timmy relax, I’m sure it’s nothing too bad.” Dick says trying to reassure him, it doesn’t help when he hears Jason snort next to him.

They make it to the kitchen and find Bruce sat down at the table waiting for them. He looks up at them and silently motions at the other seats around the table. They obey the silent command and sit in their respective places they normally would. A few moments pass and all Tim uses all the self control he can muster up to stop himself shifting in his seat when he feels Bruce’s intense gaze on him.

Bruce doesn’t say anything as he slides over a thick folder in front of Tim. Tim looks at the folder then at Bruce confused, there wasn’t anything on the front of it telling him what it’s all about. Tim glances over at his brothers to see that they are just as lost as he is about the file.

“What’s this Bruce?” He asks.

“Open it up and tell me what you see.” Is all he says, voice void of any emotion and face completely blank.

Eyebrows’ furrowing Tim slowly opens up the file. He scans the first page to see it’s some kind of profile on a person, it includes all their personal details and even a photo of said person in the top left corner. What catches Tim’s eye the most is the big red lettering across the photo: _Deceased._

What? Why was Bruce showing him this? He looks up to question the man but is quickly cut short when he demands, “Keep on looking.”

So Tim does. He flicks through the pages to find that they all correlate in the same manor, each page is a profile on a different person showing all their details and a photograph of them and every photo has the red word of _deceased_ across them. It isn’t until he’s about a quarter the way through when he realises that each page is numbered.

He keeps going through the file right to the end and when he gets to the last page he freezes. His body suddenly goes numb and he’s pretty sure his heart stops. He flicks his eyes to Bruce to see the man’s face looking grave. He looks back down at the page and reads the profile again.

_Timothy Drake._

The page contains all his accurate details but what gets him the most is his photo in the corner. Unlike the others which have red writing his has bold green writing. _Success._

He then spots the page number in the corner, _56._ It takes him a moment but when he realises what he’s looking at it hits him hard and suddenly he finds himself breathless. _56\. Experiment 56._ It's all the profiles of the people who were experimented on before him. He was the only one to live. How did Bruce get this? Why is he looking at it?

“Bruce...” he speaks up, his voice no more than a whisper, “What... what is that and why do you have it? Why are you showing it to me?”

“So you know what it is?” Bruce questions leaning forward.

Tim looks up at him. He doesn’t take any notice as the file is dragged away from him by Jason, he doesn’t look at anything else other than Bruce. _He knows._ “How did you get it?”

Bruce’s eyes narrow slightly at him. “From your report you gave me I managed to pinpoint a location to where I think you were being held captive. In the weeks I’ve been gone I went and checked out the area to see if I was right. There was an abandoned building there. I went in inspected every area of it and found a few disturbing things along the way. In one room there was a fully functioning computer, I hacked it and looked to see what was on it.” Bruce points to the file now in Dicks hands. “I found that on there and only that. He either forgot to destroy the computer in the quick evacuation that had happened, which is very unlikely, or he purposefully left it on there for someone to find.”

“He?” Tim asks. Does Bruce know who originally had captured him? “How do you know that’s the place I was being held captive?”

Bruce says nothing as he slides another file over to Tim. This one is much thinner and when Tim wordlessly opens it, a few photographs are showing. He picks them up and shifts through them, they are indeed of the place he was held captive at. There’s a photo of the building from the outside, there's one showing the cell he had slept in, another showing the room with the awful chair he was repeatedly strapped to and other one showing broken syringes.

Tim places the photos back in the folder, it's quickly snatched up by Jason who shifts through them and gives them to Dick after he was done looking. Jason looks up at Tim then at Bruce with a frown which seems to mash up with anger. “B, you said he. Do you know who held Tim as a prisoner?”

Tim turns to look at Bruce expectantly. His heart is pounding in his chest and he has to remember to actually breathe.

Bruce shares a look with each of the brothers before turning his full attention to the youngest.

“It was Lex Luthor.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So with that ending I hope I've left you wanting more haha. 
> 
> Just letting everyone know, I am going away at the end of this week so I will not be able to update this story for about two weeks, sorry! When I come back I will work on getting the next part up so if people stay tuned I would greatly appreciate it. 
> 
> :D Thanks for reading!


	18. Secrets Out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am back! 
> 
> I apologise for the long wait for this next chapter, after getting back from being away and then going back to college it's been a bit hectic, but no worries here it is.  
> Also I want to thank you for the kind comments and kudos left by you guys, its seriously amazing to know that people like this story. Though I do not apologise for the end of the previous chapter haha, glad that it caught some people out. 
> 
> Like I said I'm back and here is the next chapter, enjoy :D

It went quiet. Completely silent to the point where you could have easily heard a pin drop.

_Lex Luthor._

Tim kept repeating that name over and over in his mind. Lex Luthor. He wants to question Bruce on whether he has got it right but looking at the man he knows there’s no need to question. Bruce is looking at them all with a deadly serious expression which easily implies he isn’t joking around and by now him and his brother’s know not to joke around when Bruce is looking like that.

Lex Luthor had kidnapped him, had experimented on him, had successfully given him powers and had killed 55 people in the progress. For what reason? Tim thinks back to his time as a prisoner. He can’t remember seeing anything related to Luthor in the building, but perhaps that was the point. Bruce had found the place and found them files which Tim knew Luthor could have easily wiped from the computer meaning he left them behind on purpose to be found and then linked back to him. Why? Another question to be asked and answered was how did Bruce even know it was Luthor?

He didn’t have to voice the question out because Dick already beat him to it. “Lex Luthor? How do you know it was him? Why would he take Tim and better yet all those other people?”

Bruce turns and looks at him. “After I found them files I ran tracing programmes to see if it would lead to anywhere. The files didn’t lead anywhere as they must have been typed up on that very computer, but the technology and the operating system all linked back to LexCorp. This isn’t the first time Luthor has done biological experiments so it does easily pinpoint to him, but also leaving the files behind purposefully suggests he wants it to link back to him. Why, I’m not sure. I have been working on it but haven’t really gotten anywhere yet.”

Bruce then turns and pins Tim with a look. “I was hoping Tim could fill out some details for me. What had happened during them weeks Tim and don’t lie to me.”

Tim swallows thickly and has to keep reminding himself to breathe. He doesn’t trust himself to speak because he feels if he opens his mouth he’ll just end up throwing up. He can feel his heart pounding away in his chest and all of a sudden he feels light headed.

“-m. Tim. Timmy.” Tim looks up at his brother who is looking concerned. “You with us Baby Bird?”

Tim takes a deep breath and nods, finding himself being able to speak now he tells Jason. “Yeah, sorry.”

Jason doesn’t look convinced. “Sure, it took nearly five minutes to get your attention then.”

Tim hadn’t realised he blanked out for so long, he looks up guilty at him. “Sorry, it’s a lot to take in. I hadn’t even thought about Luthor being behind my kidnapping.”

“Tim.” Bruce calls his attention again and Tm reluctantly looks at him. “I need to know what actually happened during them weeks and don’t lie to me. I need all the information I can get so I can work this out further.”

Tim looks over at his brothers, trying to find some kind of support. Dick is giving him some sort of sympathetic look and Jason is now giving him a look which tells him _‘no other choice now Timmy.’_ He takes a deep breath and looks down at the table, he then starts telling Bruce everything.

He tells him absolutely everything, all the things he has been hiding, every single detail since he was captured. The intervals of injections, his power development, Jason finding out, going to Zatanna for help, then to Superboy, about what happened on patrol, what happened with the bomb, about Dick finding out and then finally how he and Superboy have been working together again and are being successful. Absolutely everything.

Bruce sits silently through it all; listening to everything Tim is telling him. Every time Tim glances up at him he’s still wearing the same emotionless facial expression. By the end of it Tim has tears running down his cheeks and he’s finding it hard to breathe or even make full sentences. “I'm sorry! I-I-Please Bruce. I’m so s-sorry.”

He places his head down on the table and covers it his arms now openly sobbing. He would be embarrassed but he’s too busy thinking of other things to be. Bruce knows. It’s out in the open now, nothing he can do to take it back and all he can do is wait for them words telling him to leave the man’s eyesight and to leave his city.

The words never came.

It takes Tim around 10 minutes to calm down enough to stop sobbing and to regulate his breathing. He slowly raises his head and looks over at Bruce who seems to be concentrating on a bit of paper in front of him, a quick glance to his brother’s show him they are quietly conversing between themselves. Dick had uncharacteristically left him alone while he sobbed which he was both surprised and grateful for.

Seeing Tim with his head up Bruce looks over at him and gains his attention. “Tim.” Two red baby blue eyes look up at him. “When you were held captive, did you meet any of these people in this file by any chance?”

Tim blinks owlishly at him for a moment while he comprehends the question being asked. Where was the declaration of Tim having to leave the Manor, or him being fired from Robin? He looks over at his brothers to find they’re now looking at him and Tim figures that Bruce must be waiting for them to be alone to kick him out.

Wiping his eyes and sitting up straighter Tim tells his. “No, I didn’t meet anyone. As far as I know I was the only one in there besides the scientists I saw.” God his voice sounds so croaky now.

Bruce nods. “That’s fine. From what you told me it seems like Luthor wants to make meta-humans from ordinary people using some sort of formula he has created. He hired scientists to do his dirty work on the people themselves and then hired others to grab who he deems suitable to test his formula on. Why, still remains the big question and how we didn’t know about it sooner.” He explains. “Tim, I want to get a few blood samples from you, we may be able to figure out what’s giving you these powers and why only you have survived these experiments.”

Tim mutely nods not sure on what to say. Then it hits him all of a sudden and he’s feeling like a right idiot. Why didn’t he think about doing a blood test earlier? Stupid emotions and stupid life getting in the way of him thinking rationally. It doesn’t matter now though because Bruce is doing it. He’ll give Bruce the blood then he’s sure Bruce will disown him after he’s done the tests.

Bruce stands up. “Good. We’ll do that tonight when we’re downstairs.” He then turns round and leaves the kitchen.

When Bruce has disappeared both Jason and Dick turn their full attention on Tim. They study him and Tim studies them. After a moment Dick speaks up. “Are you alright?” Tim merely nods.

“See Timbers, wasn’t too bad was it?” Jason says.

Tim glares at him. “Fuck off Jay. I’m now playing the waiting game of when am I going to get kicked out.”

Jason rolls his eyes at the teenager. “Stop being so dramatic. He’s not going to kick you out.”

He gets up and heads for the kitchen door. “Whatever. I’m going to my room so see you both later.”

 

Somehow Tim had managed to fall asleep for a few hours and when he woke up it was late evening and past dinner time. How he fell asleep he has no idea as his mind was racing with hundreds of different thoughts, he must have been more tired than he realised. Pulling himself from his bed he made his way down to the kitchen to see Alfred milling about in there.

“Evening Alfred.” He greets quietly.

Alfred turns to him. “Evening Master Tim. Would you like to eat now sir?”

Sitting down at the table Tim sends him a small nod and soon enough he has his dinner in front of him. He makes quick work of finishing it and clearing up his plate afterwards. Dreading for what’s about to come he makes his way down to the cave.

He finds Bruce hunched over the computer and Jason at the work station cleaning his guns, he doesn’t see Dick anywhere. Without any words Tim makes his way over to the medical bay where he plans on setting up the equipment to do the blood test, but when he gets there he sees that it’s already all laid out waiting to be used. He sits himself on the bed next to the equipment and waits.

As time goes on he can feel himself getting more anxious. He tries to distract his mind from what is about to happen but any other thoughts always turn back to Bruce. _Not much longer now, then I’ll be finding a new home,_ Tim thinks to himself. Immediately he recognises the tingling sensation building up around his body and knows that his protection layer of TK is manifesting. As much as he wants to keep it up he knows he can’t, he has to let Bruce have some of his blood.

The sensation only grows stronger when the man himself walks into the room. Tim automatically straightens up from where he is sat, he notices how his heart has started to beat much harder and stronger and realises his breathing has become quicker. Bruce doesn’t seem to acknowledge him from when he walked into the room, the man wordlessly goes over to the bed and starts fiddle with the equipment. The silence between the two is heavy and Tim can’t bring himself to even look at his adoptive father. He’s just waiting for Bruce to say them words to him. They’re alone right now so would now not be the right time to do it?

Bruce silently holds out his hand in the silent command for Tim to give him his arm. Tim slowly reaches forward while trying to will away the TK layer from his skin. By the time Bruce grabs his forearm the tingling sensation in his body has died down a lot, but from the quick frown that appears on Bruce’s face tells Tim perhaps he hasn’t fully got rid of it and he tries harder to make it go away.

It must have worked because when Bruce put the needle to his skin it easily slid inside and entered his body. Tim couldn’t help but flinch when the needle pierces his skin and inside his body he could feel his powers stirring but has to work to keep them at bay. The needle piercing his skin brings up memories of being strapped to that chair and forced multiple injections at the same time. He tries to think about anything else while Bruce works quickly and effectively and he ends up focusing on the hand keeping his arm still. He can’t help but compare Bruce’s hand to Superboy’s, where Bruce’s hand is rough Superboy’s is soft and the grip is similar both strong and meaningful.

Before he could think about it anymore he feels Bruce let go of his arm and announces, “All done Tim.”

Tim nods in understanding, still not meeting the man’s eyes, before jumping off the bed and starts to leave. He hovers around the exit of the room waiting for Bruce to tell him he should get ready to leave the Manor, but the man pays him no attention has he packs away the equipment and moves around 4 test tubes of blood. A couple minutes go by of Tim watching him when he finally looks up at him.

“You okay Tim?” The man sounds slightly concerned, but Tim only frowns at the question.

“Aren’t you – What about – When - .” He shakes his head. “No, sorry.”

“You can have the night off tonight.” Bruce tells him.

Tim’s still frowning, is he not going to tell him to leave? Or is this just about Tim taking a hint and leaving himself so Bruce doesn’t have to say the words. Would Bruce be cruel enough to make Tim wait for the words and when he thinks it isn’t going to happen he then drops the bomb?

Shaking his head one more time Tim says, “Goodnight” and leaves the room. He ignores Jason as he works his way back up the stairs and back to his room.

* * *

A couple days blur by and Tim finds himself back in Titan’s Tower and training with Superboy. Within them couple of days Tim hadn’t at all seen Bruce. He wasn’t avoiding him as he went about his day to day stuff but perhaps it was Bruce avoiding him, Tim’s not entirely sure. He hasn’t heard anything back from the blood test Bruce was doing, nor has Bruce told him to leave yet which is just making Tim anxious by the day. Both of his brothers appear to have gone on radio silence because he hasn’t heard or seen them in the last few days, he’s sure they’re fine but he is slightly concerned for them.

In them couple of days Tim had practiced with his powers a little bit in his room, he’s got a lot more control over them now thankfully and he doesn’t have to think so hard about using them, though he’s still struggling to get the TK layer on and off by will as he can do it every now and again but just not all the time. Now he wants to start trying harder training with his powers like trying to lift and move much heavier objects and to stop things from falling.

Since Bruce hasn’t told him otherwise he’s assuming he’s still Robin for the time being but for how much longer he doesn’t know. He’s gone to the Tower to get away from the Manor for a few days, if Bruce needs to talk to him he can contact him.

“You’re finally getting it.” Superboy says with a smile. Tim can’t help but notice that the other teen has a nice smile, he can see that it is genuine and it reflects really well with his blue eyes, makes them seem even brighter than they already are, Tim could have sworn his heart just skipped a beat looking at him.

It takes him a moment to realise he hadn’t actually replied to him and to cover up his staring he shoots Superboy a look. “What do you by ‘finally’? I’ve been getting it all along.”

Superboy gives him a disbelieving look. “Yeah sure.”

Tim rolls his eyes and walks over to grab his water bottle. He’s not showing it externally, well he hopes he isn’t, but internally he is actually beaming from the praise only because it is true. He is now getting it. Just now he had consecutively scored 10 baskets in a row using his TK to shoot the basketballs into the hoop. It’s a big step up from just tossing around tennis balls.

Tim’s aware of when Superboy comes up and stands next to him, he can instantly feel the heat radiating off the other teen. He tries his best to not turn and face him as he carries on drinking from the bottle, but as he runs out of water to drink he has no choice to turn and face Superboy.

“Hey Robin, I was thinking –“

Tim turns around to finally face him and he’s slightly drawn back by what he sees. Superboy is stood looking awkward and maybe embarrassed. He has one hand scratching the back of his neck, a light blush forming on his cheeks and seems to be struggling getting his words out. It’s weird to see him like this, normally the teen in all confident in his glory but here he’s shy and hesitant. Tim can’t help but think that it’s slightly cute.

Seeing that the other teen for some reason seems to be struggling with his words Tim prompts him. “What is it Superboy?” There’s no fire to his tone just a soft touch to it.

Superboy seems to gather himself up and stands up straighter and crosses his arms over his solid chest, despite the now confident posture there was still hesitance in his voice as he spoke. “I was thinking about maybe we could do something else, all we’ve done is training and I thought maybe we could hang out and do something else for a change.”

“I need to control my powers Superboy.” Tim tells him bluntly but he immediately regrets it.

Before he could even dwell on what a stupid move that was he hears Superboy let out a disappointed sigh. “Yeah of course, never mind. Sorry. I’ll see you later on okay. Cassie is cooking dinner so be there.” With that he turns and leaves the room.

Tim frowns at his retreating form. Hangout? Superboy asked him to hangout, to do something other than training. That’s what friends do isn’t it, they hang out. Did Superboy now consider them as friends? Granted they have both been friendlier with one another but actual friends? They still don’t really know one another. Tim finds himself wishing he actually didn’t open his mouth when he got asked that, he knows he likes the other boy but that was his looks more than anything, right?

Tim then finds himself smiling. They could potentially be friends now and he finds himself kind of liking that idea. Friends, he thinks can do that.


	19. Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Dinner last night was slightly awkward for Tim. As Superboy had said Cassie did make dinner, a nice lasagne for them to eat but while at the table Tim kept sneaking glances over at Superboy and vice versa. More than once throughout the meal they had made brief eye contact before quickly looking away embarrassed at being caught by the other. Tim’s sure Cassie’s now beginning to get suspicious at their behaviour towards each other because he saw her sending them weird glances and glares throughout the night.

Its early morning when he goes to the Tower’s training room to meet with Superboy again. It’s becoming regular occurrence to be training with the other teen and by the day Tim is finding it much easier to be around him, even enjoying it on occasion.

While he waits for the other teen to arrive he does light stretches to warm up and goes through a couple moves with his staff. The entire time he thinks about Luthor and whether he should tell Superboy about it or not. He doesn’t know if he really needs to tell him or if he just wants him to know, Tim doesn’t really know how the other teen would react to the news. He decides against it for now, maybe he’ll tell him another day.

He stops his movements when he hears someone clear their throat behind him. Turning around he sees Superboy standing there with his arms crossed over his chest and a smile on his face. How long had he been watching him? All of a sudden Tim feels self conscious but the same time he feels bold and has a sudden urge to show off, however he doesn’t do anything other than straightening up and leans on his staff.

“That was pretty impressive.” Superboy comments walking towards him. “Have you been here long? Also where’s your cape?”

Tim looks at him slightly surprised. “That? That was basic stuff dude, simple warm up routines. Answer to your other questions, no I haven’t been here that long and I decided to leave it off for today.” Which was true, Tim was just in his mask, red and green tunic with his green tights, his belt and boots, he also left his gloves out this time.

Superboy nods taking the answer, he stops walking when he’s a few feet away from Tim. Lazily spinning around his staff Tim asks “What’s the plan for today then?”

“I was thinking maybe we could spar for a little bit then move onto power training.”

Tim nods agreeing with the idea, he stops spinning his staff and begins to bounce on his toes. Waiting for a few seconds Tim then moves against the other teen. Tim has always liked sparring against Superboy, even when he full on hated him. He didn’t have to worry about hurting him when he kicked or punched, however right now was just a light spar, nothing serious though perhaps he’ll have to request an actual spar with powers and weapons later on.

They end it after about 10 minutes once they both feel their hearts racing a little faster and more adrenaline bleeding through their bodies. Tim does another load of stretches and can feel eyes watching him. He has his back turned to Superboy and can’t help but think about what part of him is Superboy actually watching. Legs or back, maybe it’s his butt.

_Dammit Tim, he’s probably not even looking at you like that, just simply the weird positions you’re stretching yourself in. Get your mind out the gutter again._

He doesn’t know where this streak is coming from but just to humour himself he makes a show of bending in half so he’s touching his toes. He straightens his legs out and puts his ass in the air and holds it for a few seconds before standing up fully straight. He turns around to see Superboy looking at him with wide eyes. Putting on a face he frowns at Superboy and acts innocent. “What? Is everything okay?”

“Dude, how are you that bendy? Seriously I don’t think I could do half of them positions.”

Tim shrugs, he’s been asked that hundreds of times. “Practice I guess. Or because my brother is Nightwing and he is like most flexible human being on the planet.”

Superboy nods his head again and takes the answer, he doesn’t question it and it's probably better that he doesn’t. “Yeah okay, anyway on to power training.”

“What do you have in mind?” Tim asks curiously.

“My idea is –“

Tim cuts him off, “You aren’t going to pin me up against the wall are you?” He asks suspiciously.

Superboy sends him a look like he’s insane, but he quickly covers it up with a smirk which makes Tim frown at him. “Not unless you want me to.”

“Well I didn’t want you to last time.” Tim tells him as he crosses his arms over his chest.

“In my defence I was just showing you how to use TK.”

“You just wanted to overpower me that’s all.”

Superboy’s smirk grows even wider. “Please, there are easier ways to overpower you if I wanted to.”

Tim doesn’t know why he’s engaging this conversation. He knows there are easier ways to overpower him, he’s human at the end of the day (or at least meta-human now) and he doesn’t have super strength or invulnerability, (as far as he knows, he’s still got a lot to learn with his powers). He takes a step forward towards the other teen, like he’s daring the other to do something. “Oh yeah, like what?”

Superboy steps towards him, bringing them closer together. “Super strength. Though I doubt it’d take a lot to get you down. Speed. I’m faster than you.”

“But I’m more agile than you. You’d have to work to catch me.”

“And that’s when the TK can come in I could easily immobilise you then go about restraining you.”

“If you did catch me, _if,_ how would you restrain me? I can work my way out of nearly anything.”

They’re almost next to each other now and Tim can feel the heat radiating off the other body next to him. Inside he can feel his heart beating faster than normal and he can feel something like anticipation growing inside of him, maybe he’s even a little turned on, either because it's being this close to the other teen or even about what they’re talking about. Tim’s not even sure, however he does know he really wants to know what the super powered teen is going to say.

“Well if I had to use something it would be handcuffs.”

“I could pick lock my way out of those.”

“Ropes.”

“Could probably break them or use friction to burn them away.”

“Zip ties.”

“That’s a little harder, if I had something sharp I’d get out of them.”

Superboy stays silent after that one and Tim smirks. He takes a moment to look up at him. They’re right next to each other now and Tim has to crane his neck up slightly to look at Superboy in the eyes. He takes notes about the others face, clean shaven, bright blue eyes, and soft looking lips. Tim suddenly has the urge of wanting to find out how soft those pink lips really are. He could easily do it as well, just requires him going on his tip toes and a shit load of courage which he doesn’t currently have. Okay, maybe not that easy.

He catches Superboy’s eyes and they stare at one another, Tim’s not sure about the expression on Superboy’s face. What was he thinking? He sees his eyes flicker downwards before snapping back up. Does he want to kiss Tim? Could this feeling really be mutual?

Before he could really register what he was doing Tim notices that Superboy is in fact leaning down and he is pushing himself up. They were centimetres away from each other when a blasting ringtone breaks the silence. Out of shock and surprise they jump apart and start to frantically look around for the noise. It takes them a moment to realise that it was Superboy’s phone from his pocket and when they do Superboy fumbles around trying to get it out, when he succeeds the ringing has stopped.

There’s a heavy silence between them while Superboy checks his phone. After a minute he looks up at Tim and waves his phone. “I – I should get this. Um, we can train later. I mean if you want to, of course.”

Superboy rubs his free hand against his neck and Tim is left feeling even more aroused and pissed off at the interruption of the phone. “Yeah of course. Later then.” He can now feel how hot his own body is and hopes he isn’t blushing too much on his face.

“Okay good, um, I’ll-” Superboy points to the door. “I’ll just be going then-”

Tim nods as he watches Superboy edge towards the door.

“Catch you later Robin.” Superboy’s says before quickly leaving the room.

Tim lets out a long breath and suddenly becomes aware of how tight and uncomfortable his suit has become and immediately knows what it is. _Dammit. Did I really get hard from that?_ For a moment he squirms from where he’s standing but realising that it’s not going to do anything he starts to quickly make his way to his room.

 

As soon as he enters his room he locks the door and goes to the bathroom where he strips off his uniform, and sure enough there he was with an erection. Trying to ignore it he turns on the shower and steps into it, letting hot water hit him as it trails down his body. He tries to think of anything else, absolutely anything but his thoughts always come back to Superboy. He just can’t get over that he had gotten hard over that conversation they had, fair enough it’s not exactly a normal conversation talking about getting caught and restrained, but the tones of voices they were using teasing and flirtatious. Maybe he’s looking into it too deeply, there was no way there was subtext to what they were saying surely.

Tim lets out a moan, both the frustrated and aroused type. He knows Superboy can overpower him and the idea of that is just making him want it. Making Tim want him. The idea of being pinned down by the other teen, by using whatever method he wants, through TK, through super strength, handcuffs or zip ties. Wanting to feel and know what Superboy’s lips are actually like, the way they could kiss his lips, the way they could leave marks over his body and Tim being pinned down and made to take it. What his hands could potentially do all by themselves-

 _No! Stop it Tim, stop it._ Tim turns around and puts the shower on the lowest setting, making it go warm to cold, _really_ cold. It helps to redirect Tim’s mind, gets him distracted enough to focus on his cold skin rather than fantasising about what Superboy could be doing to him. He spends another couple of minutes in the cold before he turns the heat back up and decides to make use of the shower now that he’s in it. He quickly washes his body and hair and gets out before he could get distracted by any other thoughts.

When he goes back into his room he changes into his normal clothes and puts his uniform to the side. He can’t help but think back to what had happened and he can’t help but completely be baffled by it. The conversation they were having wasn’t normal for them, the tones they were both using was different and how close they were from one another! Looking back on it Tim remembers the way he had leaned up towards the other teen and how Superboy had started to lean down. What if his phone didn’t go off? Would they have actually kissed one another? God knows how complicated things would have gotten if they had actually kissed. What does that mean for them now?

That just leans onto another question, was Superboy actually gay? Tim thought he was straight since he had dated Cassie in the past. He could be bi then? Or maybe he was just doing so he could mock Tim later on? It’s not like Tim is bothered if people know he’s gay or not, he just doesn’t go round announcing it so very little people actually know. He has kissed girls in the past and at the time it just didn’t feel right to him, he didn’t feel anything to it. Over time he just realised that he was into guys rather than girls. Not that there was anything wrong with the female body, it kind of didn’t appeal to him, but a male body just gets him thinking all kinds of things.

Tim rubs his head in frustration. It’s complicated to think about. He decides that he’s just going to act like nothing ever had happened and carry on normally and hopes that Superboy does the same thing. The two of them barely know each other and yet they were about to kiss! Kiss! That’s what couples do, not two people who have hated each other for years who then become friendly with each other after a month or so.

He suddenly finds himself wanting to get to know Superboy, the person behind the super facade. In the past he has used (very often) the words childish, immature, arrogant asshole to describe him but after training with him he’s beginning to think maybe there is more to the teen than Tim realises. He just has never taken the time to actually get to know him on a personal level.

Tim thinks over about how he could get around it somewhat discreetly when he remembers what Superboy had asked him last night. _‘Maybe we could hang out and do something else for a change.’_ And without even thinking about it Tim had turned down the offer just like that with no hesitation. He regrets it now, understanding that hanging out with him and doing something different would be a good opportunity to find out information about him. To get to know him.

Deciding that he wants to make up for last night, Tim exits his room in search for the other teen. While hoping he can keep his thoughts on track and not get distracted when he comes face to face with him. Unsurprisingly he finds the other teen in the TV room, what did surprise him was the fact that said teen was ferociously pacing the length of the room. He was speaking to someone on his phone and was clearly pissed off with whatever was happening.

Tim had the thought of turning back around and asking him later but when he meets Superboy’s eyes he stops himself from moving and just leans against the door way.

“Yeah whatever. I said it was okay didn’t I? Look I gotta go. Yes. Fine. Bye – I said I gotta go, enjoy your weekend away.”

Superboy turns his phone off and throws it onto the couch. Hard. He then runs his hands down his face and lets out an angry groan.

Tim isn’t exactly sure about what he should be doing in this situation. He wants to know what's going on but doesn’t want to intrude on his privacy as it really isn’t his right to know unless the other teen tells him. So he stands there awkwardly watching what Superboy does, he can’t really leave because the other teen had seen him.

Superboy then growls out. “I can’t fucking believe him. It’s a fucking piss take.”

Tim is still unsure whether he’s supposed to engage in this situation, but with how Superboy’s fists are clenching and unclenching tightly he takes a chance, maybe it’s not smart because if the teen is angry he might just use Tim as a punching bag instead.

“What’s wrong?” he asks carefully. Superboy turns to him and Tim’s surprised to see his features soften up when he meets Tim’s gaze.

Superboy lets out a long sigh before answering, shoulders slumping slightly. “Clark just cancelled on me. We had planned this weekend over two months ago, it was going to give us a bit of bonding time you know, but he just fucking cancelled because something has now popped up and he can’t apparently get out of it.”

The teen was nearly ranting by the end of it, this weekend obviously had meant a lot to him. Tim almost opened his mouth to argue that Clark may have tried to get out of it but couldn’t. He didn’t say anything however because he didn’t want to rile up Superboy any more than he already was.

“It’s so frustrating because I have tried so hard to be accepted by him, then when I think I am being accepted by him, when I feel like he really wants me to be a part of his family he bails on me I thought we were getting on alright.”

From where he’s leaning against the door Tim comments. “I’m sure Clark will make up for lost time Superboy. He probably wanted to do this weekend with you as much as you wanted it.”

Superboy scoffs at the comment, he looks away and says “Of course you would say that.”

Tim feels something inside him stir at that comment. He narrows his eyes and asks. “What do you mean by that?”

“Well you’re just perfect aren’t ya? You get easily accepted by everyone, you can never fail, you always have to be better than everyone else, practically stuck up your own ass. What do you know about acceptance or loneliness, feeling like you have no one and not feeling like you’re apart of anything?”

Tim clenches his teeth. Did he really just say that to him? Anything nice Tim thought about the other teen has literally just been chucked out the window. He full on glares at Superboy as he speaks, “What do I know? I’ll tell you what I know. My best friend had faked her own death and didn’t tell me, I grieved for her for weeks. My father – my father was murdered and I was left holding his bloodied corpse.

I am _human_ and I make _mistakes._ I am not perfect, far from it actually. As for acceptance, Batman didn’t even want me. I wasn’t chosen like the others, he didn’t pick me up from the circus to take me home, he didn’t save me off the streets, I pushed my way into his life forced him to accept me. He did everything he could to get rid of me! I’ve had to work my fucking ass off to get where I am now.

For years I felt like I didn’t really belong anywhere, I wasn’t wanted with Batman, I lost my father to a murderer and my best friend couldn’t even trust me. Then it started to pick up again when I got adopted, I felt like I gained another family, another father and even brothers but now I’m most likely going to lose them all because of what has happened and that's not even half of it!

So Superboy, you tell me. What don’t I know about loss or acceptance or loneliness or whatever else there is. ”

Tim didn’t even realise that he had walked up to the other teen until he was done talking. He noticed the way his hands are now clenched at his sides and the way they were tingling with the all familiar power of telekinesis. He was breathing heavy and glaring up at Superboy daring him to answer back sarcastically. There was a few beats of silence as Tim glares up at Superboy and as Superboy looks down at him with some sort of guilty expression. Having had enough Tim sharply turns around and heads back for the door. He makes it just pass the door way when he hears a shout. “Robin wait!”

He ignores it and carries on moving.

“Look I'm sorry.”

He keeps ignoring it until a hand comes up on his shoulder stopping his movements. Tim moves to push the hand off him when he finds both of his wrists captured in two other larger hands. Tim tugs against them but isn’t able to get free, he glares up at Superboy.

“Listen to me please. I’m sorry, I didn’t think about what I was saying. I was angry at Clark and took it out on you. That’s no excuse I know.”

Tim glares at him harder when he sees the teen’s sympathetic look.

“Robin, I didn’t realise what you’ve been through and I had absolutely no right to make sort of comment to you like that.”

Tim tries to tugs his hands back, not wanting to hear what he has to say but the grip on his wrists get tighter.

“Tim please.”

That gets his attention, he looks up at him once again and studies him. His face is screaming that he is actually guilty about what he had said and sad about what Tim had told him. Tim's surprised at himself when he finds himself wanting to accept his apology, wanting to believe that he was really meaning to be apologetic.

“How do I know that you’re being serious? How do I know that you truly are being apologetic?”

“You’re just going to have to trust me. I was wrong to say them things to you and.... I would like the opportunity to make it right. We are doing well with this civil ship thing we have going on, let’s keep it up please. For the team obviously.”

Tim takes a moment to look at his face again to see he is now wearing a pleading expression, he really does want to make it right and Tim finds himself falling for it. Letting out a long breath he says “Sure. I was actually going to originally ask you if you wanted to go hang out anyway, you know away from training.”

He sees Superboy perk up, a smile appearing on his face. “Really?! What about tomorrow lunch, we can go get food or something. I know this place and seriously they do the world’s best pancakes.”

Tim nods to the suggestion. “Sounds good.”

“So...” Superboy starts hesitantly. “We good?”

Tim finds himself once again nodding. “Yeah, we’re good.”

It's then in the silence that follows he notices that Superboy is still holding onto him, though instead of his wrists it's now his hands. He stares at them for a moment before making eye contact with Superboy. Embarrassed he quickly takes back his hands.

“So tomorrow then.”

“Yeah. See you then I guess.”

They say their awkward goodbyes before heading in different directions. Tim heads quickly back to his and flops down on his bed. He realises what he had actually admitted to the other teen and groans, embarrassed and annoyed at himself. Had he actually admitted all that and to Superboy of all people!?

_Damn emotions getting in the way again._

He also realises about how quickly he had forgiven the other teen. If it was anyone else he certainly would of not accepted an apology so quickly, so why was Superboy different?

He shakes his head to get rid of them thoughts. What’s happened has happened he can’t change it. But hey, at the end of the day he still got what he originally went for. They’ll be hanging out tomorrow away from the Tower. Just the two of them... grabbing lunch...by themselves...out of costume...oh my god...

_Is it a date?!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to be clear I am not following the canon time line, in this story I have been mixing around events and when they happened. Tim and Steph have never dated in the past in this story, they were just like best friends. Steph had faked her death which Tim had grieved over but then later on Tim had found out she was still alive, now Steph is somewhere doing something which I haven't thought about as I won't be writing her in this story, it just seemed appropriate to include. 
> 
> Anyway I hope everyone is still enjoying it and I hope it doesn't seem like I'm dragging this out too much, each chapter is important and I have plans for future ones so please stay tuned. :)


	20. Chapter 20

It’s been a bad morning and Tim hopes that the day is going to get better rather than worse as he gets ready for his date. Date? Not date?

What had happened to make it bad was firstly he woke up dizzy and lightheaded. He hopes he isn’t coming down with anything because that’s the last thing he needs, to be curled up in bed ill. The second thing is being that he embarrassed himself in front of Superboy in the kitchen by walking into a wall because he was still pretty dizzy. After that he quickly made his way back to his room.

Tim didn’t leave his room for the rest of the morning and had only started to get ready to go out with Superboy. They had made arrangements through the coms on a private line to meet up just after mid-day to head out. Tim is still slightly baffled on whether he should call it a date or not, because is it or isn’t it? Maybe he’s looking into it deeply.

Thankfully the dizziness has passed and he’s now feeling somewhat normal, he wonders what could have brought the dizziness on. Was he getting sick? Was he tired? He’s definitely been keeping up to date with all of his flu jabs and he’s been sleeping pretty well over the last couple of days so what was it?

Tim decides that he’ll focus on it later but right now he needs to decide on what to wear. Standing with his towel wrapped around his waist he stands in front of his wardrobe and scans through what clothing he has. Should he go casual or smart casual. He doesn’t want to dress up too much but doesn’t want it to look like he hasn’t put any effort in. Why is it so hard!

After debating between black or blue jeans he goes for the black jeans and tugs them on. He decides on a blue dress shirt he has and is starting to put that on when his bedroom door slams open and an annoyed Wonder Girl storms in. She stops just behind him and he makes eye contact with her through the mirror he’s stood in front of.

“Just come on in Cassie, good thing I wasn’t naked.”

She shrugs. “You’re door was unlocked.”

“You could have knocked.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“What are you doing?” He questions her turning around to now face her.

“What are _you_ doing Tim?”

“Excuse me?” He asks narrowing his eyes at her.

“I’m talking about going out with Kon, don’t question how I know. I just want to know what you’re planning.”

“Planning? Cassie I’m not planning anything. Superboy and I are just going out to grab some food that’s it, there’s nothing to it.”

“Isn’t there?” She accuses.

Tim shakes his head. “No. What gave you the impression that I was planning something?”

“Just the way you two have been acting towards one another. You’re meeting up together, just the two of you, you’re having private conversations with one another, sending each other funny looks across the table and you’re getting along! What’s going on with you two Tim?”

Tim looks away from her and focuses on a wall to avoid looking at her. “Okay fine, yes we’re getting along better, maybe even friends now okay. Is that what you want to hear?”

He hears Cassie sigh. “But it goes much deeper than just friends doesn’t it?”

Tim feels himself grow hot in the face and can easily say that he’s blushing from embarrassment, was it really that easy to tell his unexplainable attraction towards the other teen. He then feels a hand squeeze his shoulder.

“Tim it’s okay to like him like that. I’m just questioning you because I care about you both and don’t want to see either of you get hurt. I am happy that you’re both finally getting along, it’s about time. Both of you were just being petty, all the arguments and the name calling, it’s good to see that you’ve both matured a little bit. Look I don’t know why or how you’ve both suddenly started being all buddy-buddy to one another but it's good, if you can keep it up it’ll do you both good.”

Tim turns and looks at her and sends her a small smile. “Thanks Cassie.”

“Of course, though I have to say if you hurt him in any way shape or form I will hurt you.” Cassie threatens, though the effect is ruined by her grin. With a wink she adds on after "Just because you know I like him a little bit more than you."

Tim’s smiles knowingly “Of course.” For a moment Cassie stares at him and Tim begins to feel uncomfortable under her gaze. “Uh Cassie-”

He stops talking as he watches her go to his wardrobe and starts to flick through his clothes. A moment later she brings out a red t-shirt. “Wear this. It’s a lot less formal than what you’ve got on.” She shoves the t-shirt in his hands. “Don’t tell him I said this but believe it or not Kon is a sensitive guy Tim. He hides it under the arrogance you see every day but this, whatever it is between the two of you, it means a lot to him. Just have fun and try not to argue while out in public alright.”

He nods and she heads for the door. Once she’s gone Tim changes the shirt and immediately feels better, maybe the dress shirt was too much. He looks at the time and realises that it’s time to go.

  

 

Tim follows Superboy through the door and continues to follows him to a booth in the very far corner of the cafe they’re in. It's small and has a friendly environment to it, tables and chairs are spread throughout and waiters and waitresses walk in and out carrying different food and drink items. Tim sits opposite Superboy and picks up one of the menus on the table. They both sit silently until a waitress comes up to them.

“Hey sugar. Want the usual?” She asks looking at Superboy smiling.

The smile she’s wearing puts Tim off. It reminds him of when women smile at him at some of Bruce’s parties and functions and even the girls at school, they smile and act all friendly but really they just want the money, it’s all fake. He watches Superboy’s reaction to the waitress.

Superboy gives her a small smile but Tim can pick up that he’s feeling slightly uncomfortable. “Not yet, though a milkshake and a coffee will do for the moment thank you.” He replies back politely.

“Sure thing sugar.” The waitress says and Tim’s pretty sure he saw her narrow her eyes at him as she leaves their table.

Tim looks over at Superboy and raises an eyebrow in question. The other teen notices and says, “Yeah I’m a regular here and they know what I get.”

Tim nods and comments. “She seems interested...”

Seeming to understand what he’s meaning Superboy groans. “Don’t start man, seriously don’t start. She can’t take the hint that I’m not interested, even when I was dating Cassie she still tried flirting with me.”

Tim lets out a little laugh, understanding entirely what the other teen is going through, some people just can’t take the hint no matter how much you make it obvious.

“What are you laughing at?” Superboy asks giving Tim a look.

“Just you’re situation that’s all, I know it too well and it’s actually kinda funny seeing it happen to someone else.”

“Yeah I bet you get all the ladies chasing after you.”

Tim just shakes his head “Yeah ladies, the ones who come after me are pretty much in their mid twenties or over and the girls at school just want me for money.”

At his comment the atmosphere changes and Tim regrets saying anything at all. He looks at Superboy to see him looking back with a sad look, like he’s sorry for Tim. It just confuses him but before he could comment the waitress from earlier brings over their drinks.

“Here we are and when you’re ready, just call me over okay sweetness.” She says smiling once again at Superboy who politely nods back and says thank you.

The two teens fall silent as they both take sips from their drinks and as Tim scans the menu. It takes a moment but in the end Tim takes Superboy’s words and orders pancakes hoping that the teen is right in saying they are amazing.

They fall silent again after ordering the food but it doesn’t last long as Superboy speaks up. “Look, what I said yesterday I didn’t mean-”

Tim cuts him off “Sup-” He catches himself, remembering where they are, “Conner. It doesn’t matter okay.”

“It matters to me though.” He replies, sounding hurt. “I didn’t have the right to say anything like that to you. I feel bad, after what you told me as well. It made me realise even though we’ve known each other for years we don’t actually know each other. It seems that you carry so much shit on your shoulders and I don’t even realise. Yet what you told me was only half of what’s happened. It’s unbelievable Tim.”

Tim watches Conner carefully as he talks, the way a small blush appears on his cheeks and the way he looks down and plays with his fingers like he’s embarrassed to look up at Tim. Tim momentarily thinks it's cute, but then he gets himself together and answers Conner. “Like I said it’s okay. Yeah you were a little bit out of line but like you said that’s because we don’t know each other. You don’t know what I’ve been through and vice versa.” Then hesitantly he adds on “But we can now, get to know one another I mean, like personally...”

They’re interrupted when the waitress comes over and hands them their food. Once again silence claims them as they eat and Tim can’t help but agree with Conner’s statement from earlier, these pancakes are amazing! (Not as good as Alfred’s but better than average.)

About halfway through Tim starts to notice that his food is moving on his plate and then when his plate starts to move he looks up sharply at Conner who is smirking at him. Tim narrows his eyes at him and pushes his plate back down on the table. It’s probably a good thing that they’ve got the far table away from everyone else so nobody can see what’s happening.

Tim starts to glare at Conner when his knife starts to move on it's own and then proceeds to glare even harder when the fork in his hand starts to twist.

“Would you stop that!” he hisses at the other teen.

Conner just gives him a disinterested look as he takes the last bite of his food. “Stop what?”

Tim sees his napkin starting to fold by itself. “How old are you?”

Conner then grins and Tim’s inside suddenly felt all warm and fuzzy. He then remembers that he’s supposed to be annoyed with him and ignores him until he’s finished eating his food.

“Hey.” Tim looks up to see that Conner’s grin is gone and is replaced with a small frown. “Can I ask you a personal question and you don’t have to answer. It’s kind of been bugging me I guess.”

Inside Tim’s screaming it’s a bad idea but he finds himself saying, “Shoot.”

“Did you really hold your dad’s body?”

Tim feels his heart skip a beat at the question. A wave of sadness and guilt washes over him as he’s taken back to that horrific night. It must have been showing on his face because Conner is quickly apologizing. “I’m sorry I over stepped the line again, god I’m so stupid.”

Tim reaches out to Conner and grabs his hand, bringing his attention back on Tim. “Conner it’s okay.” Tim pauses as he stares at their hands. He never realised how different in size they were, Conner’s look massive compared to his small fragile ones. He links their fingers together and can’t help but notice how well they fit together. He looks back up at Conner to see the other boy staring at him intensely.

“It’s okay. In answer to your question yes I did. It was awful.”

Tim doesn’t offer up anymore than that because he doesn’t think he’d be able to talk about it anymore without choking up. He feels Conner’s hand squeeze his and for a moment he takes it, he likes the sensation of the broader hand in his.

Conner is looking at him with sympathy, but besides the squeeze of his hand he doesn’t offer anything else and Tim finds he’s grateful for that. In the past people always say that their sorry for his lost and they hope he’s okay, it annoys Tim when they do that and then to the few odd ones who don’t say anything expect give him a sad look or just a hug he doesn’t mind it as much. Feeling the warmth Conner is giving out Tim can’t help but feel assured, like it is going to be alright after all. Reluctantly he lets go of Conner’s hand.

“Tim, do you want dessert or you happy to make a move?”

“Um, I don’t mind. What do you want to do?”

Conner gives him an annoyed look. “I asked you for a reason, don’t say you don’t mind.”

Tim shrugs and then smiles at Conner’s groan. “And here I thought you were the decisive one.”

“How about we make a move and go somewhere else if you want.” Tim says.

Conner nods agreeing. Tim starts to get his wallet out to pay, but before he could fully open it Conner reaches over and grabs it from his hands and puts it in one of his own pockets. “Nope you’re not paying. This is on me.” By the stubborn look on Conner’s face Tim decides against arguing as there is clearly no point, he won't win.

As Conner leaves the seat to pay Tim watches him with interest. The way he walks just screams out confidence. The way his denim jeans shape his legs and ass has Tim admiring them a lot. The back of the plaid shirt he's wearing stretches nicely along his broad shoulders. As Tim watches him he's ready to fully admit, though not out loud, that he's fallen hard for this teen _because damn it, look at him! and that's just one aspect of  him._

Tim leaves the booth when Conner waves him over signalling that it's paid for and they can leave and as they were walking out the door Tim sees the waitress blowing Conner a kiss and waving him a goodbye, it makes him internally cringe.

“Where to now then?” Tim asks Conner as they walk along the path.

“I think I have an idea.” He replies back. Tim raises an eyebrow in question and Conner speaks again with a smirk. “You’ll just have to wait till we get there.”

 

 

That night Tim was summoned back to Gotham with the news that Bruce has his blood tests back. Even the daunting news of not knowing about what Bruce has found can’t get rid of the smile that’s been on Tim’s face for most of the day.

He and Conner had actually had a good time together. They hadn’t argued or called each other names, they were just two teenaged guys hanging out in the city. After the cafe they had gone to get ice cream by Conner’s choosing and then they spent most of the afternoon walking around the park. They talked about a lot of things and learnt more about each other. Tim recalls the way Conner’s face brightened up when he talked about the farm and the way it darkened when he spoke about things like school. Tim found that a warm feeling inside him was forming at the thought of the super powered teen’s smile and even the way he laughed.

Tim enjoyed it. He actually really enjoyed their day together. Besides that one part in the cafe when his dad was brought up, the rest of the day felt like nothing had gone wrong in his life, it was like a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. All thanks to Conner Kent, whom he hated with a serious passion just a couple of months ago and who he has now fallen hard for. It kind of makes Tim regret not being friendlier to him sooner, it had taken him to being kidnapped and then experimented on to talk to him properly.

Tim’s good mood dampened slightly as he entered the cave, but the smile didn’t come off. It was immediately picked up by Jason who was stood next to Bruce at the computer.

“What you grinning about Baby Bird?” He asks looking curious.

Tim just shrugs. “Nothing, just smiling that’s all.” There’s no way he’s telling Jason the real reason why, his older brother would tease him for months.

“Who are you and what have you done with Tm Drake?” Jason teases.

Tim stops near him. “What? Aren’t I allowed to be happy for once?”

Jason gives him a serious expression. “No.” Tim frowns but then rolls his eyes once Jason starts laughing. “Later on Timmers I want details, I’m betting a certain someone has got you smiling like that.” He comments watching Tim closely with a sly smile.

Tim feels his face grow hot at the comment and whatever Jason was looking for he must have found it because he laughing once again.

“Oh that’s brilliant Baby Bird. I definitely want the details now.”

Tim scowls at him and playfully punches his shoulder. “I’m not telling you anything.”

Jason easily dodges the punch and grabs Tim’s wrist, he is then quick to manoeuvre the teen into a headlock. Tim fights against him and for a moment the two are wrestling each other, the older brother easily beating the younger.

They stop when someone clears their throat. They both look up sheepishly at Bruce and correct themselves and just because he’s still a child Jason pushes Tim one more time which earns him a disappointed look from Bruce.

Remembering that Bruce was there Tim feels his good mood deteriorate. When is Bruce going to tell him to leave Gotham, it's been days since he found Tim has powers and yet Tim is still allowed at the Manor as well as the cave. It’s pretty harsh for Bruce to be dragging it out this long.

Tim’s broken out of his thoughts when Bruce begins to talk. “Tim, as you know I have your blood tests back and have gotten some results. I didn’t tell you sooner because I wanted to make sure they were as accurate as I could get them. I will be continuing with tests but I thought you should get to know what I have so far.” He pauses and looks at Tim.

Tim looks back half curious and half wary. “What were the results? What did you find?”

“From what I can gather you were injected with meta-human cells. We found an unknown substance in your blood, later on we found it to be extra cells, our best guess is that they are meta-human cells. The cells were injected straight into your blood stream and have now attached to your own blood cells therefore giving you your...powers.”

Tim looks at him incredulously. “That’s it? I was simply injected with meta-human cells and I now magically have powers.”

Bruce looks annoyed; whether that was at Tim or the sitituation Tim doesn’t know. “Unfortunately that’s all I got at the moment. If it is the correct answer then it leads to the question of how Luthor got them cells in the first place and why it seems to be affecting you through your blood.”

“Surely it can’t be that simple Bruce. If it was then why did 55 other people die? Why was I the only survivor of them injections?”

“I don’t know Tim. You don’t have anything different than what the others had according to the files on them. You have the same blood type of 6 of them. You’re average in height and weight, lots of them weighed lots more than you, lots of them even less than you and even a couple were about the same as you. It’s the same with age, lots of them were older and a fair amount was younger. I don’t know why you’ve survived Tim.”

Tim flinches at the last sentence, was Bruce not happy that Tim was alive? It would make sense because Tim’s become a meta, something he hates, and he’s sure Bruce would rather have a normal son rather than a meta-human son.

Tim looks away from Bruce and down at his feet, having nothing else to say. Injected with meta-human cells, he must have been injected with something else because they kept injecting him with regular intervals and in four different places. How did Luthor get his hands on them cells and why experiment on people with them? Just more questions to be answered, he ought to start making a list of them so when he finally confronts Luthor (if he ever does) he can ask them all.

Not looking up Tim quietly asks “Is that everything Bruce?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. Goodnight.” Tim turns and heads towards the stairs to take him back up to the Manor. From behind hears Jason say, “Well that could have gone better.”

“Jason.” Bruce scolds him.

“What? I’m just saying.”

“Well you didn’t need to just say anything.”

“You know-”

Tim stops listening to them as he reaches the stairs.

 

A couple hours later Tim’s in his room sat at his desk updating his log. He has been keeping a log based on his powers since he had started properly training with Conner and updates it when he can. It helps him to keep track of his progress and what he needs to work on.

He’s happy with how much progress he has made since he’s started, it’s come along really well. He’s now got much more control over it to the point where it’s easier to turn it on and off, though he's still a bit bumpy with it at times. He’s getting better at levitating stuff but still needs to work on lifting heavier objects and keeping them in the air for longer periods of time. He also needs to work on multi-tasking, so using his TK while doing something else. He’ll mention that to Conner next time.

He’s writing away on a bit of paper when suddenly a red droplet appears on the paper. It immediately catches his eye and he focuses on it. As he recognises it as blood another drop lands next to it.

He frowns, where is it coming from? He looks at his fingers to find them all fine then at his hands to see that there’s also no blood on them. He gets the answer to his question when he wet’s his lips with his tongue and tastes blood and when he touches his lips his fingers come away bloody. Perhaps he bit his lip too hard without even realising it. He goes to his bathroom and looks in the mirror to see what the damage was only to find that it wasn’t his lip that was bleeding but rather his nose. He has a nose bleed.

He goes through the normal routine of how to deal with a nose bleed and ends back at his desk holding tissue at his nose. _Weird, I haven’t had a spontaneous nose bleed in years_. He hasn’t been punched in the face recently so it can’t be an after affect of that, he wonders what could have brought it on.

Thankfully it wasn’t a big nose bleed as it only lasts for a few seconds. Tim chucks the bloody tissue down the toilet and continues with what he was doing. It was properly just a one off, no need to make a big fuss about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please don't hate me for the totally inaccurate science behind it!!  
> I am not a scientific person so it is going to be rough around the edges, I have tried to research some areas but not a lot came out of it, I apologise for that and hope no one is completely bothered by it enough to stop reading the story. Also I know the Bat family are a lot smarter than I'm making them out to be so once again sorry!
> 
> Anyway please stay tuned for the next chapter :)


	21. Over Stepping The Line

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason pisses Tim off. Both Dick and Jason think they've discovered something.

He woke up lightheaded again the next morning. Only it was slightly worse than yesterday, even when he closed his eyes he can still see and feel the world spinning. He really is coming down with something isn’t he? Groaning he buries himself in his bed covers and pillows, there isn’t a lot he can really do, maybe take some tablets but they probably won’t help much. Even if he did want to take them he has none in his bedside table as they’re in his bathroom instead and right now he can't be bothered to move.

After his nose bleed from last night Tim continued with his log until it he was fully satisfied with it. Since he didn’t go on patrol he didn’t actually have a lot to do, of course there was things that he _could_ do but most of the things he could think up involved going down to the cave and he wanted to avoid that place as much as possible for the time being. In the end he decided to do some reading as there were a few books he’s been meaning to catch up on anyway. He sat on his bed with the book and read until he felt tired which surprisingly didn’t take long.

Tim wasn’t sure how long it had been but he must have dozed off because there’s knocking at his bedroom door and it looks a lot brighter in his room than earlier so it must be later on in the day. He can now see straight and his head feels a lot better, perhaps he just needed more sleep.

The knocking on his door stops and then is followed by a voice, “Yo Timbo, you better be decent because I’m coming in.”

Tim doesn’t bother reacting as he watches his door swing wide open to reveal Jason. Jason strolls in and scans his room, at first his eyes go over to his desk clearly that's wear Jason thought he was going to be. Tim watches with amusement as Jason realises that he’s not at his desk but rather in his bed instead.

A frown appears on Jason’s face as he looks over Tim who is still tightly curled up in his covers. “Shit Tim, you okay? You never stay in bed this late, well you never stay in bed to start off with. What’s wrong?”

“What, so for me to stay in bed there has to be something wrong?”

Jason’s face tightens. “You know I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Nothing’s wrong Jay, just catching up on my sleep apparently.”

“Perhaps you should stop travelling between the Tower and the Manor so often then if you’re this tired. You missed breakfast this morning and worried Alfred because you didn’t show up.”

Tim frowns, it must be so much later than he originally thought. “Sorry I missed it, I’ll apologise to Alfred when I see him. What you doing in here anyway?”

Jason crosses his arms across his chest and begins to look smug. “Yeah okay whatever Sleeping Beauty. As for why I’m here, well one I've come to drag your ass out of bed and two since we’re currently alone in the household right now I want certain details about certain things.”

Tim narrows his eyes at his brother understanding completely about what details he wants and with the way Jason is looking at him from the end of his bed, it doesn’t look like he’ll be leaving without them details. Damn it.

Tim takes a moment to consider his options for means of escape. There weren’t any easy ones meaning he’ll have to go through Jason to make a break for his door, unless he wants to jump out his window which is on second level. _No thanks, don’t want to break any bones today thank you._ He’s at a disadvantage because his bed is tucked up in the corner of the room, meaning Jason has all the space around him.

Jason must sense what Tim is thinking because he stands up straighter and smirks evilly. “You are _not_ getting out of this one Timmy. No escape and I will get what I want. So, you want to do this the easy way or the hard way?”

Tim says nothing as he blankly stares at his brother. After a long moment Jason rolls his eyes and mutters “the hard way it is then” and then proceeds to climb onto Tim’s bed. As Jason gets on the bed Tim quickly moves and chucks his cover off of him and over Jason. While Jason is momentarily distracted Tim rolls of the bed and makes a beeline for the door.

It isn’t that easy. Jason snags the back of his t-shirt and pulls him back onto the bed where he proceeds to pin Tim down with his body weight. “Baby Bird, I already told you that there was no escape so why bother.”

Noticing that Jason had left his hands untouched Tim gets a very quick idea. He tries to start focusing TK to his palms as he smirks up at his older brother, “Jay, you seem to have forgotten but I’m not the same person as I was before-“

In one quick motion Tim manages to flip them both over so he’s now on top. He spreads his TK across Jason’s chest, arms and thighs and holds him tight with his powers. He hopes this works as he hasn’t actually tried it on anyone when he’s been in full control of his powers.

Underneath he feels Jason squirm in his hold and Tim has to work hard to try and keep Jason immobilised. He looks down at Jason to see an annoyed expression in return. “So you have control over your powers now?” He asks with a huff.

Tim knows he doesn’t need to answer but he does just because he wants to, also he doesn’t mind telling his brother these details it's just all the other ones he wants to be kept a secret. “Yep. Defiantly have gotten better at controlling them, though I still have a long way to go it's certainly an improvement to what it was.”

Jason then smirks up at him. “Uh-huh. I bet a certain someone is behind your progress isn’t he?”

Tim knew what he was implying but decides to ignore it. “Yes, because us _training_ has helped me a lot.”

“Just training huh. There’s a whole lot more to it than that Timbo.”

It's Tim’s turn to give Jason an annoyed look. “Even when you’re at a disadvantage you still talk.”

“I’m pretty sure I made it clear that I wasn’t going to let this go until I get details. Anyway, I won’t be at a disadvantage for much longer as I can feel your grip weakening.”

Tim frowns at him and tries to focus harder on his TK across Jason, but he can feel himself getting weaker as moments go by _dammit, I’m not strong enough to keep him immobilised for much longer._

Slowly Tim starts to get off Jason, making sure to keep his telekinetic on him as he does. Tim keeps a hand on his chest until he’s fully stood and then slowly begins to back away from his brother and towards the door keeping all focus on his TK across Jason.

Tim makes it to the door but can feel himself struggling to keep it up, especially with his brother squirming around in his hold. He can actually feel sweat drip down the sides of his face and his body and head buzzing from the use of his powers. It feels different than any other time he’s used them and he’s not sure why. He’ll have to ask Conner to see if he knows anything.

Tim cuts off his telekinesis on Jason and turns into the hallway outside of his room. Wasting no time he starts running down it and as he does he hears Jason say the classic line of “You can run, but you can’t hide.” Tim ignores it and runs towards the stairs, pretty quickly he hears Jason pounding after him from behind.

He turns the corner and is greeted with the stairs, he starts to run down them when he’s suddenly hit with a wave of vertigo. Abruptly stopping on the stairs he grabs the railing to keep himself from falling down the rest of them while the other hand clutches his head. The sensation from earlier is back and the room is once again spinning. He lowers himself down onto the stairs and tries to focus on his breathing, slow deep breaths in and out.

“Tim?”

Tim looks up to see Jason standing over him looking worried. Tim makes a move to stand up but because the world is still spinning he misplaces his foot on the stairs which causes him to slip. Before he could fall he feels a hand wrap tightly around his bicep stopping him from moving.

“Easy there Tim, what’s wrong? Don’t say nothing because there clearly is something.”

“Um, well, the world may be spinning just a bit that's all.” Tim tells him still trying to focus his vision. He feels Jason’s hand against his forehead.

“You don’t feel feverish, is it just spinning any headache or anything?”

“No, just spinning which is slowly stopping now.”

“Okay. If you feel anything else immediately come and get me alright.” He gives Tim a stern look. “I mean it Baby Bird. Because of this I’ll let you off with giving me details until later but right now we are getting some food in you so let’s go.”

Tim doesn’t respond to Jason’s comments but allows himself to be guided down the rest of the stairs and then into the kitchen where Jason is insistent on feeding him because he missed breakfast.

 

 

Right throughout the day Jason keeps a close eye on Tim and Tim’s sick of it by the time it comes to patrol that night. Jason hadn’t really left his side since the stairs situation. Dick had showed up around dinner time announcing he was going on patrol with them and thankfully Jason hadn’t yet told Dick about the stairs because if he did then Tim would have no chance in getting rid of Dick, mother-hen-Jason was just bearable but mother-hen-Dick was a nightmare he did not want to be dealing with right now.

After having some food Tim’s spinning had soon stopped and he had been fine for the rest of day. When he decided to go on patrol that night Jason was not happy but soon relented after Tim’s constant comments on that he’s fine. It was easily decided that Jason would be going on patrol with him just to make sure nothing happens. Tim was fine with that decision because it meant he got to go on patrol and the only reason he really was going out was because Bruce couldn’t, apparently he has too much WE files and work to take care of since he couldn’t hand it over to Lucius for some reason.

As Tim did his routine stretches he could see Jason and Dick staring at him, they aren’t even bothering to hide up the fact that they’re staring and that just makes Tim nervous. It’s not the same look as before where Jason was concerned for his health but something different. It takes a minute for Tim to understand why they’re looking at him like that and when he does work it out he refuses to acknowledge them. He was _not_ sharing details about him and Conner. No way.

He blanks them for a good 10 minutes and by then it's clear that his brothers have grown bored and decided to take matters into their own hands. From behind arms wrap around him and pull him back into a hard armoured chest which he can easily identify as Dick’s and from in front of him Jason takes his bo staff out of his hands and places it to the side.

“So Baby Bird...” Jason trails off looking at him expectantly. “Anything you wanna tell us.”

Tim looks down at the ground rather than at Jason. He doesn’t bother fighting Dick’s grip, even with his powers he wouldn’t last long. He knows what they’re after but still doesn’t give it to them, instead he complains “This is unfair, you two tag teaming up against me.”

“Spill the beans then we wouldn’t have to Timmy.” Dick comments.

Tim says nothing.

“So you’re ready to deny that there is nothing going on between you and the clone then?”

“Yes! There is nothing going on between us. We’re friends now okay. Nothing more.” Tim says defensively, getting angry now. “You guys are being ridiculous.”

“So what had you beaming last night then Timmy? That’s right Dickiebird, our little Timmy here was actually smiling yesterday a full blown grin. It turns out he really does have one after all.”

“Really? Well I’m gutted that I missed that then.”

“Fuck sake guys, you’re making it out like I’m not allowed to be happy.” Tim snaps, having had enough now. “I had a good day yesterday, one I actually really enjoyed. After all the shit over the past 2 months it was nice to do something different. You both don’t need the details because I want to keep it personal, if you have any respect for me what so ever you’ll leave it be. Just because you’ve done a great job of pissing me off I’ll fucking tell you to get off my back. Yes I went out with Conner yesterday and enjoyed it. His company was different and yes I do like him, a lot alright. Is that what you wanted to hear Jason? Happy now?” Tim rants at his brothers. He glares up at Jason showing exactly how he felt and because he wasn’t wearing his mask just yet it was in full effect.

For a while Jason stands there looking a mixture of guilty and shock at Tim’s sudden outburst. He rubs a hand at the back of his neck. “Geeze sorry Tim I didn’t mean it like that. Just messing around you know.”

Tim feels Dick release him and he instantly steps away from the older man. “Yeah because that’s all it is to you isn’t it? Just a tease. Well it's not funny. Conner and I have made a lot of progress and without him I have no idea where I would be with my powers.”

Tim ignores them as he puts his mask on and goes to his bike. Just before he puts his helmet on he bluntly says, “I’ll see you both later.”

With that he leaves the cave.

 

 

It happens when he’s riding back to the cave.

Patrol was easy enough surprisingly, he stopped a couple muggings, one rape attempt and stopped a scuffle between some homeless kids and teens. He hadn’t seen his brothers at all on patrol which he was grateful for, he knows that Jason had originally wanted to patrol with him to make sure he didn’t have any dizzy spells but after what happened at the cave his brother was apparently wise enough to leave him be.

He was on his way back, now nearing the cave when he first tasted the blood on his lips. He became more concerned over the taste of blood in his mouth when it would not go away and when he started to feel it pile up on his top lip. He speeds up and enters the cave, without even dismounting his bike properly he heads over to the medical bay and pulls off his helmet. Looking in the mirror on one of the cupboards he sees blood running down his lips and down his chin, all from his nose. He has another nose bleed.

 _What on earth?_ Tim once again goes through the routine of dealing with nose bleeds and sits on one of the beds as he waits for the bleeding to stop. Why does he have a nose bleed, he didn’t get punched at all so it's not to do with being broken or bruised. He didn’t even feel it starting to bleed, only until he tasted it, so how long had it been bleeding before he found it?

It takes longer than last time to stop, nearly two minutes, but it’s unfortunately enough time for both of his brothers to come back and find him sat on one of the beds.

“Timmy? What happened are you alright?” Dick asks coming up in front of him. Tim sees Dick’s eyes widen at the sight of the bloody tissue. “What happened Timmy?” He asks again this time more forcefully.

Despite what happened earlier Tim doesn’t object when Dick takes a clean cloth and begins to wipe away the blood from his face. His actions are gentle and soft and without even realising it Tim’s starting to lean against Dick, sudden tiredness taking over.

“Timmy your nose isn’t broken or even bruised, how did you get a nose bleed?”

Tim turns his head and lays it against Dick’s shoulder and shrugs to the question. “I dunno. It just started to bleed on my way back to the cave.” Why does he feel tired all of a sudden?

“He nearly fainted earlier today as well. He shouldn’t have even gone out, at least not without one of us with him.” Jason adds coming up next to them, now joining in. He gives Tim a concerned look then scowls slightly at Dick.

“Why didn’t you tell me? We could have done something Jason.”

Jason puts his hands up in surrender. “Don’t have a go at me, you know what he’s like.”

Dick sighs and nods. “Yeah I do. Dammit Tim, what if this is something serious.”

Tim pushes himself off of Dick’s shoulder. “I’m fine, it’s just a one off.”

Neither of his brothers look convinced but Tim is oblivious to it as he climbs off the bed and heads for the changing room.

10 minutes later Tim reappears in sweat pants and a tank top to find Jason and Dick hunched over at the computer. Heading for the stairs he calls out to them “Night guys. I’m going bed.”

“Night Tim.” “Night Timmy.”

* * *

 

They both watch him go up the stairs and then turn to one another once again when he’s disappeared.

“Something’s not right with him.”

“Really? What gave you that impression Sherlock?”

Dick whacks the back of Jason’s head. “Knock it off this is serious. I think there’s something wrong with him.”

“I know what you mean. I found him still in bed at mid-day today,” Dick looks at him shocked, “then he goes and nearly faints down the stairs. The sudden tiredness, sudden nose bleeds, dizzy spells. What do you think is wrong?”

Dick scratches his chin “I don’t really know but I might have a wild guess.”

Jason cocks an eyebrow in question. When Dick doesn’t elaborate Jason rolls his eyes. “Care to share with the class.”

Dick says nothing as he gets out of the chair and goes over to one of the tables, he picks something up and brings it back. It’s the profiles on all the people Luthor experimented on.

“You think it's something to do with his powers?” Jason questions looking curious.

Dick nods. “It's a long shot but you never know. Or he could really be medically ill and we really should send him straight to the hospital.”

From next to him Jason snorts. “With that kid it's never simple.”

Dick starts to flick through the pages, scanning each one before moving onto the next. Jason watches him for a moment before asking, “What you looking for?” He’s never been the detective Tim or Bruce is, or even Dick is so he’s currently left staring at the pages unsure what to look at.

“I’m looking-” Dick flips another two pages, “- for patterns from the dates given. I’d be surprised if Bruce hasn’t picked it up but on each page there’s two dates given. Taking a guess that’s when they were either captured or maybe when they were injected and maybe when they died, Tim’s page doesn’t have two dates, only the one.”

“So what, you’re comparing death dates? How does that link back to Baby Bird?”

There’s a pause and it looks like Dick is trying to work something out and when he finally looks up at Jason it's with wide eyes. “No, I’m looking at the time between the dates.” He turns back to the book and flicks through to Tim’s page. He points to the date. “I’ve just worked it out, that’s a week after Tim was captured and from what he’s told us that’s when he got first injected.”

Finally catching on Jason comments “So the dates on all the other pages are from when they were first injected and when they died.”

Dick nods, agreeing. He flicks back to a random page. “There’s a month between here.” He flicks to another. “Three weeks if I counted correctly.” Another page. “Two weeks. One month. One week. One day! Three days. They’re mostly all different, but the most occurring one is dying about one month after being injected.”

“Does it say how they died?”

“No, there’s no information about deaths, or injections even nothing about powers.”

“So what are you thinking?”

Dick stays silent not really wanting to say out loud what he’s thinking. Jason is quickly following up his question with another one, “Didn’t Tim tell us about getting regularly injected with the stuff, like every other day up until he developed powers or something?”

Dick looks at him curiously.

“It’s obvious that the injections killed them, but for the ones who lived longer if they developed powers – much like Tim – they stopped getting the injections, they stopped getting that regular intake-”

“and because they weren’t getting it, it started to impact their bodies even further, therefore their powers killing them.” Dick finishes off.

“Exactly that.” Jason agrees. “I mean it's a complete guess and a long shot but it’s something.”

“We’re nuts thinking this just because Tim had a nose bleed and feels tired.”

“You’re forgetting he nearly fainted as well. Truth be told I bet it’s been going on for a while and Tim just hasn’t told us.”

“You’re probably right. Bruce isn’t helping at all in this situation either.”

“That’s because he doesn’t really know how to accept it like usual. Baby Bird’s probably getting himself all worked up about it as well.”

Dick closes the file and rubs a hand across his face feeling exhausted. “Right. We keep this between us until we can further investigate it, in the mean time we keep a close eye on Tim and if anything else happens we take action. I feel like we should tell Superboy to take caution around him as well.”

Jason grins. “Yeah because they’re all buddy-buddy now aren’t they.”

Dick sends an annoyed look at his brother. “Stop it Jay. I agree that it's good that they are now getting along but we really should leave Tim alone in that area, especially because of the way he snapped at us earlier.”

Jason scrubs a hand through his hair looking guilty. “Yeah yeah. I’ll apologise to him tomorrow. It's just good to see him smiling.”

Dick smiles softly as he stands up. “Yeah totally. Anyway, I’m heading to bed now and suggest you do the same or Alfred’s going to kick your ass later on.”

Jason rolls his eyes but stands up. “Night Dickhead.”

“Night Jay.” Dick replies as he heads for the changing rooms while Jason heads for the showers.

_Don’t worry Timmy, we’ll work out what’s really wrong._


	22. Back To The Tower

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning!  
> Just a heads up that there is talk about blood in this chapter, just a little bit more than usual though nothing drastic.

Yesterday he had been mostly fine, he had woken up lightheaded for the third day in a row but luckily it passed quite quickly. Dick and Jason had left him alone all day except the occasional stop by asking if he was okay, (Jason also apologised for over stepping the line yesterday about teasing him with Conner) and he even went on patrol with no problems occurring. For most of the day he practiced with his powers in his bedroom, he had worked on lifting and stabilising objects in the air. He even managed to carry at least 10 of his heaviest books at the same time and had been able to keep them in the air for nearly three minutes. His TK protection layer is slowly getting stronger as well and it's certainly becoming easier to control it.

He was getting there with his powers, it was just taking a bit of time that's all. He hopes Conner would be proud. _Wait_ , does he even care is Conner is proud or not? What the hell is he even thinking of course he cares, only slightly though, of course.

That was all yesterday though; today however is a completely new story.

When he wakes up lightheaded for the fourth time it starts to be less of a surprise. The room is tilting slightly in his vision. He slowly pushes himself into a sitting position and presses the heels of his palms to his eyes. He takes a few deep breaths and then removes them thankfully the room goes back to normal though he still feels slightly lightheaded. As he removes his hands from his eyes he spots a reddish tint to them. Looking at them more closely he can see that it's dry blood. It's been smeared right across his hands so it's all over his fingers, his palms, the back of his hand and even on his wrists. Both hands are the exact same, smeared with blood like it's been wiped across them.

“What...?” He mutters to himself extremely confused.

He can’t remember getting injured last night so where has the blood come from? He looks down at himself to see that his tank top is covered in spots of blood, particularly at the neck line and his shorts are also patchy with dry blood, his arms have the same pattern work the only part of him which seems to be clean is his legs and feet. The sheets around him are also matted with blood, and his pillow has one giant blood patch on it.

_I defiantly wasn’t injured so what the fuck is all this. Jason better not being playing a fucking prank on me._

Climbing out of bed he goes to his bathroom and looks in the mirror. Even most of his face is covered in it. Blood has been smeared across his lips and chin and only one side of his face. Looking closer he can make out that the dry blood is the most prominent at his nose above his lips. Following a red trail down he sees that it goes over his lips and trails down past his chin and onto his neck.

_Fuck...._

_Nose bleed and a bad one by the look of it._

How did he not wake up from this!? To be covered like this it must have gone on for some time and throughout the night he must have been subconsciously wiping away at it using different parts of his hand and even his wrist and the pile of blood on his pillow must have been the way he got it on the side of his face.

He knows that it has now gotten to the point where he really ought to go to Bruce but what if this just gives Bruce more ammo for reasons to kick Tim out of the Manor. What if it just gives him another reason to not want Tim as a son anymore? Perhaps he could go to his brothers instead, but if they found out how much Tim has bled then they wouldn’t leave him alone, they would most likely force him to go to the hospital and after all that's happened the last couple of months that's the last thing Tim needs.

Maybe he’s being too dramatic, yeah okay there’s a lot of blood but he’s feeling fine like any other day really, maybe a little more tired than usual but not a lot different. He’s just making a big deal out of nothing. Yeah that's all it is, there’s no need to bother Bruce or his brothers over this.

The next issue he’s going to need to deal with is his sheets. He can’t let Alfred see them or the man will have a heart attack. Hopefully he’s currently not in the Manor then Tim could easily put his sheets in the washing machine and claim he’s just saving Alfred a job. Oh and his clothes, can’t forget about putting his clothes in too.

With that in mind Tim strips and jumps in the shower and watches away all of the blood. After changing into some of his loose lounging clothes Tim gathers up everything that’s been bloodied and makes his way down to the washing machine. There’s a separate room where Alfred does all of the bed sheets and covers in a bigger machine so Tim heads for that room rather than the small one in the kitchen. Surprisingly, but thankfully, he bumps into no one on the way down. He puts all of his stuff into the machine and starts to wash it, thank god for his younger self learning how to use this machine because it's really helping now.

Tim leaves the room and heads for the kitchen for some breakfast. Tim finds both Dick and Jason in there, Jason’s drinking what looks like coffee and is on his phone while Dick is devouring a bowl of cereal. Tim walks over to the coffee pot and starts up his own batch. When he’s finally holding his first cup of coffee of the day he goes and sits next to Jason at the table. The older man glances his way “Morning Baby Bird.”

“Morning.”

“Hiya Timmy!”

“Morning Dick.”

“Sleep well?” Jason asks not looking up from his phone.

Tim shrugs. “Like normal I guess.” _Apparently I slept like a rock considering I didn’t wake up from a big ass nose bleed._

“That’s good I guess.” Jason comments.

“Any dreams Tim?” Dick asks, seeming hopeful for Tim to say yes.

When Tim shakes his head Dick deflates and Tim can hear him quietly mutter “boring.”

The three brothers sit in silence together for a long period of time before Dick breaks it, he’s now washing any breakfast dishes they had used at the sink. Over his shoulder he addresses Tim. “Got any plans for today then Timmy?”

Tim shakes his head again. “Not yet.”

Dick turns around while drying his hands and leans back against the counter. “Good because you’re coming with me to Titan’s Tower later on today.”

“What.”

“You heard me.”

“Dick why are you going Titan’s Tower and what do you need me to come along for?”

“It doesn’t matter why I’m going and you’re coming with me because I want you to come along.”

Tim lets out a sigh. “Dick I don’t want to go today.”

“Tough because you’re coming. Be ready for mid-afternoon-ish.”

“Dick.” Tim starts to whine but his brother is solid and he won’t be changing his mind no matter what.

Then suddenly Dick is smiling, not the genuine happy smile but the sly I have something planned against you one. “Is there not a certain person you want to see Tim?”

Before Tim could react to man’s words, from next to him Jason’s head snaps up from his phone. The action is so fast that Tim nearly got whip lash from just from watching it.

“What the fuck Dick, I thought we agreed to not tease him about the clone any more you hypocrite.” Jason glares at Dick.

Dick rolls his eyes. “I wasn’t teasing, if you let me finish I was going to say ‘is there not a certain person you want to see Tim to help you train with your powers’.”

Both Tim and Jason where the same expressions while facing Dick, both easily saying _that’s bullshit._ However Dick isn’t deterred by either of their looks and simply laughs at them.

“Anyway, like I said Tim be ready for mid-afternoon and Jason remember to look after yourself Little Wing.”

Dick then leaves the kitchen and disappears down the hallway. Tim turns to Jason and Jason just shrugs at the teen, _I dunno, just go with it._

Tim rolls his eyes and gets another cup of coffee, well later on today is going to be interesting.

 

Before he goes to the Tower with Dick Tim collects his sheets and clothes from the machine and heads for the dyer. As he waits for it to warm up he looks at his sheets, they’re defiantly a lot cleaner now but not perfect because you can make out faint blood stains on them. _Damn, but I don’t really have the time to put them through the machine again unnoticed, perhaps I could hide them. Yeah I’ll do that, I’ll hide them in my wardrobe or something._ Tim puts them in the dyer and makes a mental note to collect them before he leaves.

Two hours later, with his sheets now carefully hid in his wardrobe, Tim’s in the jet with Dick on their way to Titan’s Tower. Dick’s in the pilot seat while Tim occupies the co-pilot seat next to him.

Once their steadily in the air Tim looks over at Dick. “So why are you going to the Tower?”

Dick turns his gaze towards him. “The reason I’m going is nothing you need to go worrying about alright. Anyway how are you feeling?”

“Why won’t you tell me? I’m fine, why?”

“You just looked a little pale this morning that’s all, I mean you look better now but you never know.”

“Don’t change the subject.”

“I'm not changing the subject.”

Tim narrows his eyes at his brother. “Are you being serious right now?”

Dick smirks at him. “You asked why I’m asking if you’re okay and I answered, I don’t see how that’s changing the subject.”

Tim rolls his eyes and looks out at the window, and mutters “you’re insufferable,” under his breath.

Dick hears him and laughs, he leans over and ruffles Tim’s hair. “Love you two Timbo.”

Tim swats away the intruding hand and slouches back in the chair now waiting for the flight to be over.

 

As they both enter the TV room Dick is immediately attacked by Kori who tackles him to the ground in a ferocious hug. Tim just lets them be and wanders over to the couch where Bart and Conner are playing a video game. Just seeing Conner makes him catch his breath, at the moment it's because of the way he’s smiling widely and laughing loudly at Bart and the screen. Tim realises that he’s staring and shakes himself out of the trance like state as he continuous towards them.

“Hey guys.” He announces as he draws up to the couch on Bart’s left. He settles down and watches the screen, there’s some kind of fighting game being played.

Bart quickly looks at him before turning back to the screen. “Dude! Hey. Howsitgoing?”

Conner doesn’t even acknowledge him, all his focus is on the screen. Tim feels slightly disheartened by that but then feels annoyed at himself for feeling like that. Tim sits quietly as the two of them finish their game with Conner winning and Bart pouting at his loss.

“Man, that’s the 10th time in the row!” He complains chucking his arms in the air and falling backwards on the couch.

Conner smirks “I told ya, you are not going to beat me at this. I’m a pro.”

Tim was about to comment but before could Dick was calling out to them. Tim watches as his brother walks up them. “Hey guys.”

“Hi.” “Hey.” Bart and Conner greet him. Tim chooses to stay silent, carefully watching the man.

“Do you guys mind if I borrow Conner here for a minute.” Dick asks with a smile, he holds Tim’s look for a moment before going back to the other two.

Tim narrows his eyes at Dick. _So that’s what he’s come to the Tower for, he better not mess anything up._

“Me? Why do you want me?” Conner questions sounding worried.

“Don’t worry, SB, you’re not in trouble I just need to talk with you that’s all. It won’t take long I promise.”

Tim watches Conner send him a worried glance before stammering “Uh yeah, sure, uh okay.” He gets up and starts to make his way over to Dick. Without even thinking about Tim gets up and starts to follow, that is until Dick holds up a hand in front of him stopping him. “Timmy I just need Conner okay. Go play with Bart while we talk.”

Tim glares at Dick. “What do you think you are doing _?”_ He hisses at him lowly.

Dick’s undeterred as he stares down at Tim. “Just talking Tim, alright.” Tim carries on glaring at the man and Dick just rolls his eyes. “Nothing you need to worry about alright, now go.” He gives Tim a little shove backwards and Tim complies.

Tim sits stiffly on the couch as the watches Dick loop around Conner’s shoulders and as he starts to lead Conner out of the room and out of ear shot. _He better not harm him or mess anything up or I swear to god I’ll get my revenge on him._

Hang on, what? When did Tim start getting so defensive over Conner? No it wasn’t that, it’s more Dick being annoying and getting under his skin. Yeah its definitely that. He doesn’t need to be defensive over Conner, Conner can look after himself. Though maybe being worried for Conner is reasonable because it’s Dick he’s with and believe it or not Dick can be a scary motherfucker when he wants to be. (Jason’s words not his, but either way they fit perfectly.)

From next to him Bart speaks up. “Dude, any ideas what that’s all about?”

In response Tim shakes his head instead of answering verbally. He slouches down into the couch suddenly feeling a bit tired.

“Oh okay. Hey! Wanna game?” Bart asks waving the abandoned controller in front of Tim. Tim gives Bart a look. “Bart you know I don’t play those sorts of games.”

“I know but a single match won’t hurt right?”Bart says with a hopeful look.

Tim snorts at his friend. “The only reason you want me to play is so you can kick my ass.”

Bart grins widely. “Got it in one. Now let’s play!” He shoves the controller in Tim’s hands and starts up a new game and a new match.

 

Tim’s not sure how much time passes as he plays against Bart on the game but he was so absorbed into playing that he didn’t even realise that Conner was sat next to him until the other was speaking.

“Strike him while he’s disorientated. Press up once and down twice quickly.”

Thanks to his bat reflexes Tim’s able to keep himself from visibly flinching, after the initial shock he quickly does what the other said to do and sure enough he ends up winning the match. From his other side Bart lets a squawk of protest. “Dude! Don’t help him out. He doesn’t even need it, he’s basically a pro at it all ready Mr I-don’t-have-time-for-silly-video-games-because-I’m-Batman-junior.”

Both Tim and Conner give him a funny look for the choice of words. Bart frantically waves his arms around in the air. “It's true. Conner, my man, back me up here.” He pleads looking at Conner with wide eyes.

Tim looks sharply around to Conner who is now slightly rosy in the cheeks. “Um, well, Tim he kinda has a point. You never play video games with us when we do play.”

Tim quickly looks away from Conner and back to the screen to avoid any more eye contact.

“Why didn’t you ever join in? On tournament nights or any other time really?” Conner questions curiously looking at Tim closely.

Tim keeps his focus on the screen even as he feels his face heating up. To avoid any embarrassment he lies, “I just never have time.”

He feels Conner’s gaze harder on him, if he’s not careful he may end up shooting Tim with lasers from how hard he is staring. “I don’t care that your heart stayed steady through that whole sentence, I can still certainly tell that it was a lie. What’s the real reason you never joined in?”

Tim fiddles with the controller in his hands, still not looking up at him. _Damn, how did he know?_ “It doesn’t matter why I didn’t.”

Thankfully Conner drops the topic, though from the corner of Tim’s eye he can see that the other teen is clearly not happy about it. Tim lets out a little sigh of relief. God he did not want to explain that he had never played a video game before he became Robin. Before he was the Boy Wonder his parents never bothered giving him consoles for his birthday or for Christmas, when he was on his own he just had to do something else with his time. Hell, that’s probably one of the reasons why he started going out and following Batman when he could because it gave him something to do as well as real life action rather than what he would be seeing on the screen.

After becoming Robin he guesses that from not growing up with them he just doesn’t find them all that interesting. He’s never really been fussed about it. When Jason or Dick excitedly shows him a new game, he’ll act super interested when he’s really not just so he could see them be happy. Okay fair enough he did have fun on occasion playing them but he wouldn’t always go actively finding them to play like Bart and Conner do. Honestly, he really enjoyed playing with Bart just now.

Tim gives the controller to Conner. “By the way Bart I’m not a ‘pro’ at it, it’s just super easy once you know the tactics of the game. It took me a few games to pick it up but that’s how I ended up beating you.”

Conner takes the controller with a frown which makes Tim frown in return. Why is he looking like that, what is he thinking? The questions quickly disappear from Tim’s mind when he feels Conner’s hand brush against his. A warm shiver passes through Tim and he has to work hard not to blush.

Tim lets go of the controller and steps back. “Well I catch you guys later. I’m going to my room.” Without any other words he hurries out of the room.


	23. Stuff Happens

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All the kudos are extremely appreciated, it means a lot to me to know people are liking this story :)   
> I couldn't think of a clever chapter title, but that basically what happens during this chapter so it does sum it up rather well ha-ha.
> 
> Warnings! Mentions of a fair amount of blood in the second half of this chapter, there's violent and bloody coughing involved, just giving you all a heads up. Also including a mix of fluff and angst - you've been warned!

Dinner that night was uneventful and the evening dragged on. During the night while the team was chilling about in the TV room Tim had gotten his laptop and started doing bits and pieces on it. However he’s still doing those bits and pieces at 3 o’clock in the morning when he really should be resting. Everyone else had retreated hours ago leaving Tim all alone in the room.

Tim had stayed in the TV room to avoid going back to his and to avoid sleeping. He doesn’t know why but he’s slightly paranoid about how he’s going to wake up if he falls asleep. Would he just be lightheaded or would he wake up covered in blood again? Neither appeal to him. So he’s opting to avoid sleep for the time being. He knows he’s being stupid and petty and he's fully aware that he won’t be able to avoid sleep forever but it's just for the time being.

He’s wasting time by browsing away on the internet, but he's soon distracted when he hears footsteps. Looking up he sees Conner passing through the room. A towel is thrown over one shoulder, his hair his sticking to his forehead and he’s wearing a tank top which is showing off his defined biceps and some sweat pants.

Tim not so subtly turns back to his laptop when Conner looks his way. Tim keeps his focus on his computer as he hears Conner's footsteps walk toward him instead of away. As Conner draws closer he looks up again and fakes innocence. “Hey.”

Conner shoots him a look which Tim can easily read as: _You weren’t subtle at all._

Tim’s grateful that Conner doesn’t comment on it. Really he should have been better than that, after all he’s been trained to be subtle, maybe it was more to do with being awake at 3 am so his reactions are a little off. Yep, he’ll just blame that.

“What you doing up?” He questions the other teen curiously.

“I could ask you the same question.” Conner shoots back.

“Well I’m a bat, we’re always up at this time.” Tim says simply, not giving the real reason to why he is up.

“Right.” Conner doesn’t look convinced. “I was just doing a bit of training, couldn’t sleep so I worked out for a bit.”

“Fair enough.” Tim comments. In the past he often worked out when he couldn’t sleep, it was a good way to pass time and to keep your mind distracted.

They fall into an awkward silence as Tim sits on the couch and as Conner stands near him. It eventually breaks when Conner gestures to Tim’s laptop, “What you working on? Anything interesting?”

Tim sighs. “If only. I don’t even know anymore, just on some random website.”

“Oh.” Conner moves and leans forward and looks at the screen. “You know, you never told me why you were awake.”

Tim shrugs “Can’t sleep.”

“Nightmares?” He asks and Tim looks up at his concerned expression.

Tim shakes his head. “No, just can’t sleep.”

“Hmm...”

Tim turns his attention back to the laptop only to turn it back to Conner as the other teen abruptly turns and leaves the room. _He must have gotten bored standing there. Don’t blame him, it’s not like I’m exciting or anything._ Tim turns off his laptop and sits in silence debating about what to do now. His laptop is nearly dead meaning he needs to go charge it but the charger is in his room and now finds himself not having the energy to move and he still doesn’t want to go to sleep.

In the end his mind starts to wonder to different places but it doesn’t get to wonder very far because once again there are footsteps in the room. He looks over at them to find that once again Conner has the entered the room, only this time he’s carrying two mugs full with steaming liquid in his hands and is carrying something underneath his elbow. Conner wordlessly places the two cups on the coffee table in front of Tim then he goes over to the TV and turns on the DVD player placing a disc inside.

“Conner what are you...?” He asks the other teen as he comes and sits next to Tim on the couch.

Still saying nothing Conner picks up the mugs and hands one over to Tim. The TV starts up and Tim can see what Conner has put in, Wendy the Werewolf Stalker. Tim recognises the name but can’t place where he’s heard it. He defiantly hasn’t watched it. He then looks at the mug in his hands. It’s hot chocolate. He sends a questioning look over at Conner who is sprawled out next to him and is now slowly sipping his own drink.

Conner notices his looks and grins. “Ma’s recipe dude, can’t go wrong.”

When Tim doesn’t stop looking at him Conner rolls his eyes. “It’s not drugged, I promise.” When Tim doesn’t let up on his look Conner lets out a sigh and takes the mug from his hands. Conner takes a decent sized sip before giving it back to Tim. “There see. You have got serious trust issues.”

Tim lets out a huff but takes a sip of the warm drink. It’s nice but he doesn’t know why Conner is doing this. A sudden thought draws upon him. “Are you doing this because of what Nightwing said to you earlier. Speaking of which what did Nightwing say to you?” He questions.

Conner shoots him an offended look. “I’m not here because of what Nightwing said to me, I’m here because I care about you and I just thought I’d do something nice. I’m wide awake anyway despite working out so yeah.... And what Nightwing and I talked about is staying between us, sorry he told me I’m not allowed to tell anyone, even you.”

Tim draws back slightly from what he just heard, unsure about what part to focus on. It’s either on the fact that Conner is being secretive about the conversation he had with Tim’s eldest brother or the fact that Conner admitted he cares for Tim.

“You care about me?”

“Yeah, Tim I do, believe it or not.”

The comment brings his attention back on Conner. “Did I say that out loud?”

Conner looks at him like he’s gone crazy. “Yeah.”

“Damn. Do you really care about me?” He asks again in doubt.

“Well friends aren’t we? Friends care about one another so... you know...” The answer was hesitant and it still makes Tim question him, but when the other teens face suddenly flushes red and Conner scratches the back of his neck in what Tim now recognises as embarrassment, Tim begins to question his doubt instead

“Yeah we are...” He agrees slowly, trying to ignore the warmth that’s spreading inside of him.

_He cares about me. Does he actually care about me that much?_ The thought warms up Tim’s insides. He doesn’t really know what to think about that. Of course he knows what it feels like to have people care about him but for some reason it's just different when it's Conner. Of course this could be because of whatever Dick had said to him which is making him act like he cares for Tim but he’s starting to think that it is actually genuine. Tim pushes the thoughts to the back of his mind as he focuses on the TV instead.

 

 

“Hey can I ask you question?” Conner asks Tim out of the blue.

Tim looks over at him. It's been about hour since they started watching TV and still neither of them appears to be going to sleep anytime soon. Tim smirks at him. “You just did.”

Conner hits him lightly on the arm. “Smartass, you know what I mean.”

“Yeah sure, shoot.”

“Is Tim your actual name or is it something else and you just like being called Tim?”

Tim raises an eyebrow at the question. “What? Where the hell did that come from?”

“Dunno, just wondering that’s all.”

“Okay.... um if you must know my birth name is Timothy but I do prefer Tim.”

“Timothy?”

Tim nods, for some reason he feels embarrassed and annoyed he bets Conner is going to be judging him for it from now on. “It's what my other used to call me. Never Tim or Timmy or anything else. I hated it, still do.”

“Doesn’t suit you, it's too formal. I mean I know you’re pretty formal anyway, maybe a bit too much sometimes, but the name just seems... posh.” Conner says looking at him thoughtfully.

Tim struggles to not shift under the teens look. “I don’t know if I should be insulted or not.”

“Take it either way I don’t care, just saying what I think that's all.”

“Like you do most of the time huh.” Tim quips back without thinking about it. He realises what he says and winces.

Conner sends him a sharp look. “Really? Do you really wanna go there?” He says lowly.

Tim puts his hands up in a placating gesture. “Sorry, wasn’t thinking about what I was saying.”

Thanks to Tim’s mouth tension has built up in the room. If it was a couple months ago and they had this exact conversation by now it would have easily turned into a physical brawl between them. It just makes Tim realise how far they have come together, whether that means anything to Conner he’s not sure.

Attempting to ease the tension Tim asks a question. “What about you, did Superman ever give you a Kyrptonian name?” Tim knows it of course, but he just wants something to talk about with the other teen and hopefully it eases down the tension between them.

“Yeah he did, but you already know it don’t you.” It wasn’t a question but statement.

“Yes, but tell me anyway.”

“It's Kon-el. It's from the house of El, what Superman belonged to when he lived on Krypton. You know, it meant a lot when he gave me the name, it made me feel important like I was actually wanted.”

“What do you prefer being called? I mean do you like Conner, Kon, Kon-el or Superboy?” Tim was actually genuinely curious to know. He hadn’t thought about it before but now that they’re talking about it, he’s curious to know the answer.

“Kon’s probably my favourite. At school I’m just known as Conner to everyone, but here most call me Kon, of course unless we’re busy saving the day then its Superboy.”

“Fair enough. My brother calls you ‘the clone’ by the way.” Tim tells him, he doesn’t know why but he does. Once again he spoke up without thinking about it.

Conner just laughs. “Well he’s not entirely wrong there.”

Tim snickers. “Maybe your hero name should have been Clone Boy instead of Superboy.”

Conner laughs again. “Uh no. If I had that name then I would not get any kind of respect.”

Tim shrugs. “Oh well, even if you never get any respect ever again just remember that we respect you as you’ll be our clone boy.”

Tim sees Conner raise an eyebrow. “Our clone boy?”

Dammit he’s done it again, _think before you speak Tim_.

Tim tries to defend what he said. “Yeah, mine, Cassie’s, Bart’s. The teams.” He just ends up making it worse. Conner doesn’t seem bothered by it as he smirks.

“Oh yeah? If I’m your clone boy what does that make you? Our Robin? _My_ Robin?”

Tim can’t help but smile at that. It just sounds right. “Yeah, something like that.”

The two of them share a smile, the tension finally disappearing like it was never there to begin with. Tim feels a warm sensation build up inside of him again. _My clone boy and his Robin_.

After a while they turn back to the TV.

 

 

When Tim comes back to the land of the conscious the first thing he notices is that he’s not in his bed. It feels too bumpy to be his bed. The second thing he notices that he feels completely fine, a little tired but that’s nothing new. He wipes his nose and licks his lips to find them both free of blood. He’s okay, he’s actually fine. So maybe the last couple days were just a one off, hopefully.

The next thing he works out is where he is. He’s not in his room but in the TV room, the TV has been turned off and even the coffee table has been cleared of stuff except Tim’s laptop. Right, he never actually made it to bed and ended up falling asleep on the couch instead while watching TV with Conner.

Conner! Tim suddenly works out what feels bumpy underneath him. Slowly moving he finds that he’s actually lying on Conner. Somehow Tim has ended up lying in between the meta’s legs with his back to Conner’s chest. One of Conner’s arms is wrapped around his chest while the other props his head up.

_Oh god! Oh god!_

Thankfully the other teen was still asleep and not aware of their positions. After freaking out for a moment Tim slowly starts trying to extract himself from the meta’s grasp. He picks up the arm around him and gently puts it to the side, he then slowly works his way up off him. Thankfully the meta human doesn’t even stir as Tim gets up. Once Tim was standing he takes a moment to look at Conner. He looks peaceful as he sleeps, his face is relaxed, breaths are coming out in slow intervals. _Cute._

Tim’s staring is interrupted as he hears sounds coming from another room. Going into action Tim picks up his laptop and heads for his own room. As he enters he hears his phone beeping away on his bedside table checking it he sees he has a message from Dick and one from Cassie.

Tim opens Dick’s message first. _Hey lil’ bro. Got called into work back at Gotham, so took the plane back while you were asleep ;) Hope you don’t mind see you soon – Dick._

Tim glares at his phone for multiple reasons. So Dick had ditched him at the Tower, brought him there just to ditch him. The next reason being what was the wink face for? Oh god, did he see him and Conner together on the couch!? Tim groans, there is no way of getting away from that if he did.

Tim moves on from Dick and opens Cassie message just to groan once again as he sees it. She’s sent him a picture of him and Conner sleeping together. They were in the positions he woke up in, the only difference being that their fingers are linked together. The photo comes with the caption; _When’s the wedding??? ;)_

Great. Just great. Tim’s never going to be able to live this down now. He hopes Cassie hasn’t shared that photo with anyone just yet, hopefully he’ll be able to convince her to delete it, if not he’ll have to bring out the black mail. Same goes to Dick, he’ll black mail him as well.

Tim shuts his phone off (not before saving the photo, which he is never telling anyone about, _ever_ ) and heads for his shower, he moves his thoughts to what he’s going to do for the day.

* * *

It turns out that he’s going to be training with Conner for the day. Tim was training by himself in the training room when Conner came waltzing in asking if he wanted to do some power training. Tim was hesitant at first because of what happened last night but eventually agreed.

However he hasn’t been able to concentrate properly. His mind keeps on wondering to different places and it keeps making him distracted. First it went wondering around the fact Luthor was the one to experiment on him and how he has yet to tell Conner that it was him in the first place. The next place his mind stopped off at was the fact Bruce hasn’t told him to leave yet and currently his mind on the other teen he’s in the room with.

Tim keeps waiting for Conner to make a comment about last night, but he doesn’t. Nothing about last night gets spoken about and since it doesn’t look like Conner is going to engage in that conversation Tim is more than happy to let it slide. Maybe the other teen just doesn’t know how they ended up like that on the couch together. It seems like Cassie hasn’t shown him the picture that she has (Tim has yet to speak to her about it).

Tim is snapped out of his thoughts when the wind is suddenly knocked out of him and he feels himself flying backwards. He lands heavily on his back and has to work on getting his breath back. He hears Conner scolding him from across the room.

“Tim you need to concentrate.” Conner’s face appears above him.

Tim scowls at him, finally having caught his breath. “I am concentrating!” He really isn’t but he’s going to argue against it anyway.

“No you’re not.” Conner reaches out with a hand.

Tim slaps the hand away, suddenly feeling aggravated. “I am!” He climbs to his feet and launches a blast of telekinesis at Conner. Tim feels the tingling sensation leave his palms as he thrusts them out at the other teen. In front of him he sees Conner getting pushed back a few feet before stopping. Before he could move Tim sends out another blast of energy from his hands, he’s using his pent up energy that he’s suddenly found.

He feels the sensation around his body as he works his powers harder than he has before. He brings it to his hands and pushes them out towards Conner, once again forcing him backwards. From where he’s stood Tim can feel Conner in his TK and he focuses on it to wrap around the other teen. He can feel Conner’s defined muscles under his touch, he can feel the way Conner is breathing and he can even feel the way Conner is starting to fight against him.

Tim keeps pushing against Conner as Conner pushes back. Tim puts all his effort into it, trying to muster up everything he can to fight back. He flicks through his emotions, using the sudden anger and rage to help him push against Conner.

He was winning as well, or at least he thought he was. Conner is a lot stronger than he is both physically and powers wise so its not surprising when he starts getting the upper hand, especially when Tim suddenly starts to feel lightheaded. As he works against the other teen the room starts to tilt on him, Tim tries to blink it away but it only makes it worse.

Tim tries to focus but when a lump forms in his throat he’s forced to break up the fight and from that multiple things happen all at once. Tim finds himself once again being chucked across the room by a powerful shove from Conner’s telekinesis but he barely registers himself hitting the ground as he finds himself wrapped up in a violent coughing fit and unable to breath properly.

Tim covers his mouth with his hands as he gets to his knees, he’s unable to take it any further though. As he continues to cough, unable to stop himself he feels a hand appear on his shoulder and he’s pretty sure a voice is speaking to him. He tries to shove the hand of him as he keeps his mouth covered, he’s unsuccessful but then draws his hand back when something is forced into it.

It takes a moment but Tim recognises it as a bottle. Thankfully he’s able to get the bottle to his lips and is able to swallow some liquid down, but some of it does get disgustingly coughed back up. The liquid does help sooth his throat. He feels the hand rubbing lightly on his back and hears the voice still talking to him but unable to make out the words.

It takes a while and a lot longer than it should have but Tim gets control of his breathing and starts to take long shaky breaths. He feels Conner's presence next to him but doesn’t comment on it. Instead he focuses on the ground and notices that there’s blood splattered on it. He looks at his hands to find that blood is also on them, he then realises that he can taste blood in his mouth.

_Was he coughing up blood?_

“Tim you back with me here? Tim, come on man tell me, you back?”

Tim just wipes away the blood as he breathlessly answers. “Yeah. I’m okay.” With Conner’s help Tim uncurls and sits up.

“Dude what the fuck? What the hell is wrong with you!?” Conner exclaims next to him. Tim goes to answer but is cut off. “Don’t say you’re fine because you clearly aren’t! You were coughing up blood!”

Tim just waves the panic to the side. “Nothing... to worry about... It’s okay.” He still feels breathless though, thinking about it he’s tired and he can still taste the blood in his mouth. “I’m just... gonna... go get some...rest.”

“I think you need to go back to Gotham.”

Tim immediately shakes his head to the suggestion before realising that it was a mistake. “No... I’m fine just going to... rest.”

He shakily gets to his feet and starts to move towards the door leaving a very confused Conner behind in the training room as he exits.

 

 

He doesn’t get to rest. The moment he collapses on his bed he’s completely restless, tossing and turning trying to get comfy. He feels like crap. The room won’t stop spinning and he can’t get rid of the taste of blood from his mouth no matter how much water he drinks.

He was fine all day until training. What the hell happened? He had a sudden anger burst and took it out on Conner but then suddenly he was violently coughing and coughing up blood. That’s worse than the nose bleeds he’s had. Perhaps it is something much, much worse than he anticipated.

He groans when he feels another wave of vertigo hit him. He needs to call someone, he needs his phone -

He starts coughing again much like he did in the training room. Getting air in his lungs seems impossible, his chest starts to feel tight and he can taste more blood in his mouth. It's violent and sounds awful and as if coughing wasn’t enough Tim starts to feel blood upon his lips and as it starts to run down his chin. _Shit._ Nose bleed. He wipes the blood away from his nose as he coughs into his hand.

His phone – the water bottle –

He tries to reach out for both but is unable to co-ordinate himself to grab either one of them. After several tries and constant misses he gives up and curls up into a tight ball on his bed, still coughing and still tasting blood.

He jumps when he hears a voice call out to him and flinches when unexpected hands touch him. He tries to fight them off but still coughing and struggling to breath makes it difficult to do. He stops fighting when he feels a lot of phlegm enter his mouth, he turns his head away and spits it out.

“Tim, can you hear me?”

Tim groans as he recognises Conner's voice. This is something he doesn’t need right now. He needs his phone –

“Tim, I’m going to take you to Gotham alright.”

Tim weakly shakes his head in protest.

“You’re not getting the choice anymore you stubborn son of bitch.”

Tim feels himself getting manhandled around, an arm curving underneath his knees and another wrapping around his shoulders lifting him up.

“Shit.”

Tim tries to fight Conner’s grip on him but doesn’t get anywhere as he feels a warm sensation wrap around him. The warmth soothes his chest just enough so he can try and focus on his breathing but it's still difficult. His nose is still running with blood and the copper taste in his mouth is still prominent.

“Conner....”

“Hang on Tim I got you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this all made sense to everyone about what was going on with Tim.  
> During training with Kon a sudden switch got flipped and he got pretty pissed off over different things all at once causing him to lash out. Sometimes things like that just happen, we could be in a good mood then all of a sudden we're in a bad mood, it happens.
> 
> Anyway, it is nearing the end of the story now with a few chapters left to go. Thanks to everyone who is still reading it up to this point, it means a lot - really it does. 
> 
> Stay tuned for the next bit :)


	24. Conner Takes Action

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no excuse on why this is such a late update, apologies for the wait guys.  
> But here it is! The next chapter and for the first time we have Kon's POV. 
> 
> Also I hope everyone has had a good Christmas which they have enjoyed.

Kon shouldn’t have let it go when they were together in the training room. There clearly was something seriously wrong with him but the other teen just brushed it off like it was nothing, but before Kon could do anything about it Tim had disappeared out of the room and Kon stupidly left it at that. If Tim wanted to be a stubborn, stupid ass about whatever the hell it was then he wasn’t going to get in the way off that.

It was later on when he was walking back from the training room that he finally did something about it. He was walking down the corridor towards his own room when coughing caught his attention. After a minute of it not stopping and only growing worse Kon decided to go check it out. He made a detour and found himself at Tim’s room where he can hear the violent coughing coming from inside.

Kon lightly tries the door to see if it was unlocked, the freaky bastard always has security on his door and Kon can never tell when it's activated or not. He was surprised and relived to find it unlocked. Kon walked in to see Tim curled up in a tight ball on his bed violently jerking with every cough. He zeroes in on his face to see blood coming from his mouth and flowing down from his nose, his breathing is off and his heart is rapidly pounding.

Kon stands there for a moment unsure on what to do. It’s not often he sees the team leader at such a vulnerable state and he doesn’t know how to approach it. His heart is clenching in sympathy for the teen where it hurts to see him like this.

A sudden protectiveness surges Kon forward towards the teen. “Tim?” he reaches the bed and lightly touches him on the arms. Tim weakly struggles against his hands but soon stops as he spits out a load of phlegm from his mouth. _Gross._ “Tim can you hear me?” He tries again, this time getting a groan in response. Getting an idea Kon tells him “Tim I’m going to take you to Gotham alright.”

The coughing teen weakly shakes his head in protest and Conner rolls his eyes. “You’re not getting the choice anymore you stubborn son of a bitch.”

Conner bends over Tim and manhandles him so he’s carrying the other teen bridal style. “Shit.” Tim tries to fight his hold but Conner doesn’t let up, instead he starts to spread his TK around him. Blood is still slowly coming from Tim’s nose and lips as he whispers “Conner...”

“Hang on Tim I got you.” He tells him as he leaves the room in order to go to the closet window so he can fly out towards Robin’s own city.

Conner leaves the Tower with Tim pressed tightly against his chest with a warm layer of TK surrounding him, he goes as quickly as he dares to get to the dark city. Getting another idea Kon focuses his TK on getting his phone out of his pocket and into one of his hands. He begins to call Clark on his phone hoping the man will pick up.

After a few rings he picks up. “Conner? You okay, what wrong?”

If Conner didn’t have Tim hacking up blood in his arms he would have been peeved about how the man greeted him then.

“Clark! I need you to alert Batman, like right now!” He exclaims.

“Why....? What’s going on?” Conner can hear worry seeping into his voice.

“It’s Robin, I mean Tim. He’s bleeding and keeps coughing up blood, also he won’t stop coughing! I’m on my way to Gotham with him in my arms because I didn’t know what else to do.”

“Okay Conner. I’ll let Bruce know alright, just focus on flying and getting there as fast as you can. I’m on my way.”

“Okay.” Conner hangs up and pockets his phone once again. In his arms Tim lets out a whimper and Kon feels his heart clench again. It sounds so wrong that it's painful, especially with it coming from someone like Tim. “Hang on Tim. We’ll get you help.”

The flight seems a lot longer than it should be, but in during it Kon has some serious thoughts about the teen in his arms. If it was a couple months ago and this situation happen Kon would have just brushed it off to someone else and let them deal with it like Cassie or someone. But now it's different, he feels different about him. He’s fallen hard for him annoyingly enough. He just can’t tell what it is about Tim that gets him under his skin so much, they absolutely hated on another before Tim got kidnapped. Then he got powers and asked Kon of all people to help him with it. They had fights and arguments sure but somewhere in the middle of all that Kon started to learn about another side of Tim which he hadn’t seen before and the like for him developed.

Right now it hurt a lot to see Tim like this, in pain, weak and vulnerable. He should pull through though because sure enough he’s done it before being as stubborn as he is. He’s had worse and still walked out on top.

Soon enough Kon reaches Gotham and heads for Wayne Manor (he only knows where it is because he’s been to a charity function there before with Clark, not by choice though.) He carefully drops down and starts up the steps, as soon as he gets to the top he’s ushered inside by the old butler and ordered to follow him.

Conner has no idea where he’s going but they come to stop in front of a big clock thing in a small room. The butler moves the hands of the clock and suddenly it's being opened to reveal a stair way. Wasting no time the elderly man starts to descend them and commands Conner to follow. Walking down the stairs Conner realises that it's the famous Batcave.

If the situation was different he would actually take the time to marvel at the place but it isn’t the right time. As soon as he finished the stairs there’s a shout, “Timmy!”

Conner is then bombarded with a very concerned, un-masked Nightwing. “What happened, what’s wrong with him?”

Conner was about to answer but an British accent stops him. “Master Dick if you wouldn’t mind but let Mister Kent here through.”

Nightwing - Dick - Then looks sheepish. “Sorry Alfred.”

The butler then motions Conner over to him in a different section of the cave, as he approaches the old man he realises that it's a med bay.

“Mister Kent could you please put Master Tim down on this cot. We’ll soon work out what's wrong.”

Kon is reluctant to let Tim go but does eventually and gently lays him down on the bed while drawing back his TK. Tim lets out another whimper and carries on coughing, blood still running down his chin and neck. He curls up into a tight ball, shoulders jerking repeatedly.

Conner stands by the bed helplessly as the butler and Dick hook Tim up to several different machines. At some point Kon had taken hold of Tim’s hand and holds it reassuringly. The butler announces he’s going to take some blood when another person joins them.

“What the hell happened? What’s wrong with him?”

Kon looks over to find Tim’s other brother looking at the scene with wide eyes and a frown.

“We do not know yet Master Jason, Mister Kent has only just brought him here.” The butler pauses and frowns.

Kon sees Red Hood - Jason - turn towards him suddenly looking furious. _Wow his brothers are super protective aren’t they?_

“What the hell is wrong with him clone?” His tone low and threatening like its Conner’s fault that Tim is on the bed and bleeding.

Conner goes to defend himself but Dick beats him to it. “It’s not his fault Jace, leave him be. Remember what we talked about.” Conner watches Dick give Jason a look and realises that they are having a silent conversation between themselves.

Alfred’s voice breaks through once again sounding worried. “Master Tim I can’t get the needle into your skin, I need you to put away your powers if you can.”

Tim lets out a small whining sound. Realising that there is something he can do here, Kon takes action and bends down to be level with Tim’s head. Quietly he begins to talk to him. “Tim, you can do it okay. Remember that we’ve practiced this, you’re getting good at it. Do you think you can take away the TK layer so he can get some blood from you?” He sees Tim peer up at him with wide blue eyes before nodding slightly. After a moment the butler tries again and successfully injects the needle into Tim’s skin.

Conner watches as Alfred takes two tubes of Tim’s blood and places them off to the side. “Master Dick would you start running a diagnosis on the blood samples.”

Dick nods and takes the tubes of blood. “Of course.” He then disappears, but not before giving Conner a look and gently smoothing some of Tim’s hair away from his face.

“Master Tim can you hear me?” Tim makes a sound. “What’s happening lad? Can you tell me anything?”

Kon feels Tim squeeze his hand. “It hurts.... chest.... head... room won’t stop spinning...” His speech is broken up by violent coughing and there’s still blood running down his face. It's slowly piling up on the mattress next to his head

“What’s going on? How is he?” A new voice breaks through. Conner turns to see Clark and the famous Bruce Wayne enter the med bay.

“I’m afraid we don’t know yet sir. All he has told us is that his head and chest hurt and the room is spinning. It also appears that his nose won’t stop bleeding and he seems to be coughing up blood.”

Tim’s adoptive father comes up next to the bed looking down at the teen with a frown. “Internal bleeding? A Concussion?”

Before the butler could answer Clark speaks up looking at Conner. “What was going on before you brought him here Conner?”

Suddenly Kon was at the attention of nearly everyone in the room. Trying not to be put off by the intense stares Conner focuses on Tim, not looking up. “Um... I don’t really know. We were training together then suddenly he doubled over and started to violently cough, even coughing up blood. He said he was fine of course and I let it go but later on I heard him coughing again in his room and I went in to see what was up. He was in a bad state and not knowing what else to do I brought him here.”

After Conner finished there was a grunt in acknowledgement but he couldn’t tell whether it was good or bad. He looks up to find Bruce still staring at him intensely, probably even more so than before. “How long has he been bleeding like this, how long has the coughing been going on for?”

“Um, I don’t know... sir. Only today as far as I know.”

“The nose bleed isn’t a new thing.” A voice inputs and ends up gaining all the attention in the room. They look over to see Jason slouching in the door way looking at Tim on the bed who was still coughing and bleeding.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Bruce demands.

“It’s happened before, a few times. He’s been lightheaded, tired and have had nose bleeds for no reason. The cough is new however but everything else isn’t.”

Bruce glares at Jason. “Why haven’t I heard of this until now?”

Jason seems undeterred by the glare and just shrugs in response. From behind Dick walks up to the room and stands next to Jason looking at all the room occupants and finally landing on Bruce. “Jason and I have a working theory to what may be wrong with Tim but we aren’t a hundred percent sure yet.” He tells them.

Conner looks down at the teen to see him surprisingly asleep. His heart is beating steadily but his breathing is still a little off and there’s still blood coming from his mouth and nose, though it seems to be coming little bit slower than before. Tim must have coughed himself into exhaustion. It’s only then that Kon realises that he’s still holding onto Tim’s hand, he doesn’t let go however and instead he gives it a small squeeze. His hand look so big compared to Tim’s, it's cute. He just wishes that it was a different situation where they were holding hands.

Conner turns his attention back onto Dick. “We believe that Tim’s powers are... killing him. We think that because Tim hasn’t been having a regular dose of whatever they were injecting him with, it's now affecting his body somehow and causing these side-effects so to speak. After some thinking we’re guessing that it's like his body is beginning to refuse the meta cells inside of him. That there is an unbalanced amount of cells in him and his body is trying to flush out them cells out, however because it's in his blood his body is getting rid of the blood through nose bleeds and now him coughing it up as well. We think that’s how all the others died as well, from blood loss, well the ones that lived longer after being injected anyway. It's hard to tell since we weren’t there.” Dick explains looking at Bruce then at Tim on the bed.

“What do you suggest?” Bruce asks observing his eldest son.

Dick throws his hands up. “That’s just a complete guess Bruce, but until the diagnosis is done there isn’t a lot we can do.”

Bruce looks to be in deep thought for moment but Clark is the one to speak up next.

“Wait, you said others. There were more than just Tim and what is the talk about meta cells, and Tim has powers?” Clark looks completely lost at this point. To be honest Conner isn’t that far in front of him. All the talk about meta cells and balance is going over his head.

Bruce still looks deep thought but Dick answers the questions with patience. “Yes, Tim has powers. He has telekinesis. Tim was unfortunately used as a human experiment by Luthor and from that he gained powers. He’s been working with Superboy to control the telekinesis.”

“Luthor! What’s he got to do with it?” Conner questions. “He’s the one who experimented on Tim, why?”

Dick turns and looks at him. “We don’t know. Tim himself didn’t even know it was Luthor until a few weeks ago.”

“Why didn’t Tim tell me? We could have done something about it!”

“I don’t know Conner. I guess he was going to tell you when he was ready.”

Conner looks back at the teen on the bed. Of course he was keeping secrets, he always does. Dammit, if Tim told him Luthor was involved then he would have gone and done something about it. Hang on... if Luthor was behind this then surely the man would be able to fix it. He’ll need a little convincing but Kon would be more than happy to provide it.

Conner’s attention goes back to the conversation when Bruce speaks. “If there is an uneven balance of cells in his blood and it's causing his body to refuse it then we need to get the levels right again, meaning we need to find exactly what cells Luthor used on him. When I was there I didn’t find any clues or any substances which could lead to what Luthor was using on him. Unfortunately Tim doesn’t know himself which leaves us at square one.”

“Can’t you find the cells in his blood and re-create them somehow?” Clark asks him still looking lost but not as much as before.

Bruce just shakes his head. “It’s not that simple plus we don’t have the right equipment here and definitely not enough time.”

“So why not just go straight to him, force Luthor to give it to you.” Conner says.

Bruce looks at him and Conner tries his hardest to not squirm under the man’s gaze. He reminds himself that this man is _Batman,_ no wonder Tim can easily pin people with a look if this guy is his mentor. “We cannot go in and force him to do anything. Luthor is a powerful man and we need to plan this out carefully, if we _even decide_ to go to him at all. What makes the matter more complicated is that Robin was kidnapped and not Tim Drake-Wayne, we’ll have to deal with it as our personas.”

Kon makes a face, not liking the idea of having to wait. Tim is curled up in a tight ball, bleeding from his nose and mouth, struggling to breathe and all Batman wants to do is wait and plan. What’s worse is that it doesn’t even sound like the idea they have in mind is all set in stone, they each sound unsure about it. Normally Kon reckons he wouldn’t have been able to pick up the worry behind their words as they are the bat family and masters of controlling emotions but because one of their own is ill and by the looks of it fatally, it's easy to pick up on.

After a moment of silence besides Tim’s raspy breathing when Clark speaks up again. “What do you want to do?”

“For now we wait until the blood diagnosis is done. I’m going to call Dr. Tompkins to look him over and I’m afraid we’ll have to go from there. He doesn’t seem to be at risk of bleeding out at the moment but if the bleeding doesn’t stop in the next couple hours we need to take immediate action. Alfred.”

Alfred speaks from next to the bed. “Yes sir?”

“Could you hook Tim up to one of his blood bags, we can at least try and replace the blood he’s lost. Also is there anything we can do about his breathing?”

“Of course sir. With Master Tim’s breathing I can try an oxygen mask on him but it may need to be changed if the bleeding doesn’t stop.”

“Do what you have to. I’m going to make the call to Leslie and carry on my search on Luthor.”

Bruce begins to walk out the room and Clark follows him. “I’ll join you and offer what I know.”

To Conner’s surprise Bruce doesn’t object to Clark’s company. They disappear and soon enough Conner is left with Alfred, Jason, Dick and of course Tim (who is still currently passed out on the bed).

Thinking about it, how could Bruce even leave Tim’s side at a moment like this? His partner, his _son_ is bleeding out on a bed and he’s gone off to do research.

“Mister Kent, could I please have Master Tim’s arm so I can attach the blood bag.”

It’s only then that Conner realises that he’s still holding onto Tim’s hand. “Yeah of course, sorry.” He steps away and the butler moves in to replace him as he sets up the bag next to Tim’s bed.

Not looking away from Tim Conner speaks up, “So this is all Luthor’s fault?”

“Seems that way kid.” One of them replies. Conner looks up to see Jason watching him with narrow eyes and Dick watching Tim with sad eyes. Dick then moves over to the bed and takes the hand which Alfred isn’t busy with.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

“Master Dick would you help me prop him up on the pillows, being curled up like that is not helping him.”

Conner watches them move Tim around so he’s now in a reclining position. As Alfred then sets up an oxygen mask Dick gently wipes Tim’s face clean, though very slowly more blood carries on coming out. Alfred then places the mask on Tim and Kon’s heart once again clenches at the sight he’s seeing, Tim has now gone pale, more so than usual, his clothes are slightly bloody and it's horrible seeing him being hooked up to different machines that surround the bed.

_Dammit Luthor..._ of course he would be the cause of such a thing. Of course Tim had told him that he’d been experimented on but he didn’t say who by. Was Tim going to tell him at all or was he just going to keep it a secret? If so what else could he be hiding?

He looks up to Tim’s brothers. “What can we do to fix this?” He needs to do _something_ because he’s not used to seeing Robin like this, weak and practically helpless. It isn’t normal and Kon wants to have him back on his feet, where they can train and potentially go out together like the other day and he wants to finally kiss those damn lips of his to see what they are really like.

“There’s not a lot we can do Conner.” Dick answers from next to the bed, he’s now running his thumb across Tim’s knuckles.

“There’s got to be something!” Kon stresses.

“What do you suggest we do, huh? Go after Luthor? We don’t fully know what is wrong with Tim. Everything we’ve said is just a goddamn guess about what is wrong with him.” Jason says from the doorway a scowl on his face showing his annoyance.

“We can’t just stand around and do nothing! You’re his brother’s surely you want to take action.”

“Of course we do! As much as I want to go after the son of a bitch we can’t. Anyway why do you care clone? A couple months ago you hated him, what’s changed?” Jason challenges him.

“I care about him alright. I don’t hate him, not anymore. It changed when he came to me asking for help.”

“There’s nothing we can do until Bruce finds out more, until Leslie has looked at him and until the blood diagnosis is done.” Dick says calmly, though he doesn't look particularly happy with it.

“We can’t stand around and do nothing!” Kon says again feeling almost desperate.

“Tough shit, because that’s all got at the moment.”

“No, it isn’t.” Conner makes a decision in his head. He looks once more at Tim before heading for the door planning on making his way out of the cave. As he reaches the door Jason blocks his way. “Move.” He commands.

Jason looks down at him with narrow eyes. “Whatever you’re planning it's a bad idea.”

Surprisingly he doesn’t get affected by the look, “You don’t know what I’m going to do.”

“I have a pretty good idea.”

“Move.”

“No.”

Conner glares at Jason while he glares back and suddenly it's a glaring contest. The only reason Conner hasn’t coward away yet is because of his determination and stubbornness. Bats aren’t the only ones who can be stubborn.

They keep glaring until a voice breaks them. “Enough, both of you!”

Having had enough Conner moves forward and pushes Jason out of the way, he taps into his super-strength to move him. The man moves to the side easily and Kon makes his way out into the open cave and starts to head up the stairs. Behind him he hears Jason shout.

“You’re a fucking moron clone!”

Kon ignores it and reaches the top of the stairs. There’s a certain some who he needs to pay a nice friendly visit too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologise for the totally inaccurate science once again, please don't hate on me, I am trying. I hope it all made sense about what is going on even if it isn't totally accurate.  
> Thanks for reading and stay tuned :)


	25. Confrontation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kon confronts Luthor.

Kon leaves Wayne Manor in a matter of minutes and immediately heads for Metropolis. He wasn’t entirely sure what he’s going to say to Luthor when he faces him but he’s more than prepared to fight the man and force him to get Tim an antidote.

_Tim..._ It’s scary about how he sees the other teen now. Not just a friend but now a love interest. They quickly went from enemies to acquaintances and then to friends, but could they be more? Would Tim want to be more? Kon thinks back to the times in training, how close they’ve been pressed up against one another and neither of them backing away, the time he had pressed Tim up against the wall with his powers, flirting with one another, when Tim was stretching showing off his legs and ass and then that time they had almost kissed. They had gone out to the cafe that Kon enjoys and had a great day out (at least Kon enjoyed it and he hoped Tim did to) and he’s still unsure on whether that was a date or not.

He never thought he would be into guys because he’s always looked at and dated girls but Tim is certainly something else. Kon can’t help but look at his physique, he may be small but there’s defiantly strong and defined muscle there and he can’t help but be slightly attracted to how smart he really is. To Kon Tim was a big headed, cocky and stuck up his own ass like he was better than everyone else, but then he started to learn that Tim wasn’t at all like that, on occasion he could be a right asshole but everyone can be like that, Kon certainly knows that he can be an asshole himself sometimes.

Now he just wants Tim to be okay and to get his powers sorted out, once that’s all sorted perhaps they could do _something_ together, like being friends and even potentially something more than that. He’s not sure, he’ll have to have a proper conversation with him which hopefully won’t turn into a shouting match which happens quite often with their conversations. But the one thing Kon knows for sure is that he definitely wants to get to know the other teen more, at the moment it’s like Tim is a present to be unwrapped, he’s got a feel of the shape and weight of it but doesn’t know what it is on the inside. Kon wants to unwrap that present.

Conner flies for a while before Metropolis comes into view and when it does he heads for LexCorp believing that’ll be the best place to try and find the man. Hovering around the top of the tower, just outside of Luthor’s office, he uses his x-ray vision and super hearing to pinpoint where the man is. Kon finds him sat as his desk filling out what looks like to be paper work he also finds that Luthor is alone in his office, there’s no body guards around him. Not even Mercy. Conner looks a little further into the building into the corridor that leads to Luthor’s office to find that it's completely empty, _where are his body guards?_

Of course Kon knows that Luthor can look after himself but it's certainly unusual to see Luthor alone, even in his office. Kon ponders for a moment trying to decide on the best course of action to take to confront the man but his thoughts are quickly disrupted with the image of Tim bleeding and coughing on his bed, the image makes Kon’s heart clench again. Any thinking processes exit Kon’s mind and he just opts for going through the window.

With glass shattering everywhere Kon stands in the middle of the room unscathed. He clenches his fists tight and faces Luthor. The man is stood up and has a gun aimed towards him, several beats go by and Luthor puts the gun down and calmly sits back down at his desk.

“Superboy,” The man greets in a way grates on Kon’s nerve, “to what do I owe the pleasure-”

“Cut the crap Luthor. You know damn well why I am here.” Conner snarls at him. He stands tense, fists at his sides as he watches Luthor recline in his chair like Kon is no threat to him at all.

Luthor says nothing as he stares calculatingly at Conner and Conner loses his patience after a few beats. He storms up to Luthor’s desk and smashes his hands down in rage, the metal underneath dents at impact and causes a ringing sound.

“Robin is dying because of you! Give me the goddamn antidote before I beat it out of you Luthor.” Kon knows he’s not being rational but his anger and hatred for the man in front of him is getting the better of him.

Luthor didn’t even flinch when Kon stormed up to him and he shows no signs of being intimidated by the half Kyrptonian’s outburst. Luthor watches him for a moment and Conner is ready to explode once again when the man speaks up. “There is no antidote. If he’s dying now then he’s just a failure, like all the others.”

Kon lets out a low growl before launching himself at the man. He grabs Luthor by the throat and pins him up against the wall on the opposite of the room. “He is not a failure! Robin didn’t deserve what you did to him! Why did you target Robin in the first place? Where are the injections you were giving him?”

Luthor narrows his eyes at Conner, “what makes you think I’ll tell you any of that?”

Conner slams Luthor back against the wall, hard enough to crack it. “You’ll fucking tell me because you don’t have any other choice.” He starts to squeeze the man’s throat, not enough to kill him or to knock him out but enough to make the man start struggling to breath. He keeps the pressure there a little longer before letting it up a bit

“I had high hopes for him, thought he was going to be the one.”

Kon slams him against the wall once again. “Why him?”

“Young, strong, intelligent. No civilians were working so I decided to expand try someone else, who better than a protégé of The Batman.”

“That's not a reason! Why Robin and where are the injections? Why kill so many people?”

“Why are you so interested Kon-El? Last I heard you hated the boy, what’s changed?”

Kon turned and threw Luthor into another wall. The man landed in a heap on the floor but slowly starts to get up. Fuming from where he was stood, Kon shouts “Do not call me that! You have no right to use that name!” He starts to stalk over to Luthor. “As for my relationship with Robin, it's none of your business!”

He was about to grab Luthor and haul him up against the wall once again but before he could he suddenly felt the wind getting knocked out of him as he was slammed onto the ground, hard. Before he could register anything else a glowing green light appeared in his vision and a weight was pressing down on him. Conner could immediately feel the effects of kryptonite. His limbs are beginning to feel much heavier, he was starting to feel sick in his stomach and he started to become lightheaded where it was hard to focus on anything. For a moment he tried to fight back and tried to get rid of the weight on him but the kryptonite was making it impossible, he yields and lets himself get pinned to the floor on his front with his hands behind his back.

Luthor walks over to him and crouches down next to him, he leans over and grabs a fist full of Kon’s hair and pulls, forcing Conner to look up at him. “Now then, you want to know why I experimented on all those people. It’s simple really, to give ordinary humans powers. Create a world where everyone is equal and where no one stands out from the crowds.”

Luthor lets go of Conner’s head and stands up. Kon lets out a groan after feeling a wave of nausea hit him and it takes him a moment to understand Luthor’s words. _To give ordinary humans powers._ It doesn’t make sense. “That's not the real reason.” Connor accuses through gritted teeth, the kryptonite weakening him every moment. He closes his eyes and rests his head on the ground as he listens out for Luthor.

“Of course not, because in the world we live in there will never be full equality.”

To stop Luthor from rambling on about how he hates the world or something like that Kon interrupts with, “Why do human experimentation then?”

“Money. Power. Do you realise how much would be paid for a successful human enhancement formula. Millions or even billions.”

Even in his weak state Kon can’t help but snort at Luthor’s reasoning. “That's all you care about though isn’t it Luthor. Money.”

“It’s only a matter of time until we perfect the formula, until earlier on I thought we had it complete but with you coming in here saying that Robin is dying it looks like we’ll just have to keep trying.”

Conner feels his rage building back up at the mention of Tim, he tries to struggle once again but the kryptonite gets shoved in his face more and there’s suddenly a heavier pressure on his back which keeps him on the floor. He groans once again feeling another wave of nausea but he grits his teeth and shouts out. “You’ll do no such thing Luthor. You’ve killed innocent lives for nothing!”

He hears Luthor scoff. “It wasn’t for nothing.” Then Luthor is yanking his head up once again by his hair and is now glaring at him. “You don’t realise what we’re achieving here, believe it or not we’ll be helping mankind-“

“All you are doing is causing more chaos which isn’t needed. You’re killing innocent people. You’re doing illegal human experimentation just so you can get money. You’re a sick son of a bitch Luthor.”

The grip in his hair tightens and Conner lets out a hiss. “Are you forgetting about how you came into this world? Without me you wouldn’t even exist. But now look at you, you were meant for more than this, but now look at how pathetic you are.”

Conner glares at Luthor, hatred stirring inside of him at the mention of how he came to be. “If you knew Robin had powers why didn’t you ever confront him?” He needed to get answers.

Luthor lets go of his hair and stands up once again. “Remember Santa Monica?”

Conner’s brain takes a minute to catch up. Santa Monica, evacuation, bomb, explosion, Robin having a mental break down. “Yeah, what's that got to do with anything...?" It takes him a moment but it clicks, "You placed that bomb... you set the whole thing up.”

“The bomb was merely a test to see how Robin was coming along with his powers. I was disappointed because he had no control. He was not ready. I had plans made to go confront him in the near future but because of you I no longer need those plans. As for the formula, a new batch will have to be made as Robin’s ones are unsuccessful. Try and try again as they say.”

Conner is once again reminded of why he came here in the first place, the kryptonite near him is making it hard to focus. “I need that formula you gave Robin Luthor.” He says.

“Why’s that then? So you can take it to The Bat and get it analyzed, break it down to know every ingredient in the formula.”

“We have a theory...” Kon speaks without even thinking about it, he knows he should shut up but it all spills out. For future references he’s going to blame the kryptonite. “Robin needs regular dosages of the formula, his body is fighting against itself and we think that it needs a regular intake. Give me the formula, please...” Conner doesn’t want to admit it that he’s been reduced to begging because if this ever gets out then he’ll never live it down.

It goes quiet for a long time and all Conner can focus on is the throbbing in his head, how heavy his limbs feel and the constant sick feeling inside his stomach.

“What makes you think that the scientists I have hired haven’t already tried that?” Luthor questions, but Kon could have sworn he heard uncertainty in his voice, unless he was making it up, he’s pretty out of it to be 100% sure.

“Because.... because they would have already survived if they had tried it.... Just give me the formula; you’ve got nothing to lose.”

“Mr Luthor, we need to get going.” A feminine voice spoke. It sounded like it was coming from above Conner.

“Of course. Mercy knock him out, we’ll leave him here and his owner can pick up their lost dog.”

Kon had no chance to prepare because suddenly the weight on his back shifts and there’s another hand grabbing a fist full of his hair. The hand jerks his head up and suddenly slams it back down on the ground. Kon hisses at impact and tries to fight it but he can barely move. His head collides with the floor a second time and it makes Conner’s headache so much worse. A third time causes him to black out.

 

 

“Conner... Conner... Kon-El can you hear me. Come on bud wake up.”

The first thing he notices is that someone is shaking him, the second is that there’s a voice speaking to him and thirdly his head hurts like hell. Struggling to get his vision in focus Kon looks up to see a red and blue suit hovering over him. After a moment he can see that it’s Clark , he’s the one who was shaking and speaking to him.

“Conner you with us?” The man of steel asks.

Groaning Conner starts to sit up and Clark helps him up right. “What... What happened?”

“You stupidly ran off.” Another voice says. Looking around Conner sees Batman stood by Luthor’s desk and another thing he notices is that it’s now night out.

“How long was I out for?” He questions slowly getting to his feet. He doesn’t make it because his head starts swimming and his knees give out underneath him. He groans again.

“Easy Conner you were exposed to Kryptonite for a long period of time, you’re going to be slightly off.” Clark tells him. “We’ve been here for about 20 minutes but from what we know you’ve been here for about two hours. Sorry it took us so long to get here.”

“It’s fine.” Conner’s not really bothered at the moment, maybe later on he’ll be but right now he doesn’t care. His head is still pounding and even though the kryptonite is gone his body still feels heavy and he still feels a little nauseated. “Tim! How’s Tim?”

Before Clark could respond Batman’s talking from the desk. “His condition hasn’t changed much from earlier unfortunately.”

“What have you found?” Clark questions Batman.

“There’s a tin here, it’s full of small test tubes, 16 in total and they appear to have all the same substance in them. A note was left behind as well.”

Conner picks up at that. Did Luthor really leave the formula? It could just be a hoax however, Luthor isn’t kind enough to do that.

“The note says, _‘Just this once, I’ll be in touch one way or the other.’”_

It goes silent for a while, each of them lost in their own thoughts but Kon was the one to break it. “The tubes have to be the formula that Tim was injected with.” Both Batman and Clark give him a sceptical look.

“We can’t be certain and I’m not giving this to him until I know what it is.” Batman tells them.

It pisses Conner off. He starts to get to his feet, using Clark to balance against. His legs still feel wobbly and his head is still pounding but he doesn’t let it distract him. Kon turns to Batman. “You don’t have time to analyze it, your son is dying! You have to give them to him.”

Conner expected Batman to get in his face, to shout or growl at him for disrespecting him like that but to Kon’s disbelief nothing happens. Batman doesn’t even look up at him from where he’s looking at the tubes and the note. A couple minutes go by before Batman speaks up. “We need to get going back.”

Clark nods and let’s go of Conner but stays close in case he still needs the extra support. He doesn’t. surprised at what just happened Conner walks over to the shattered window and stands at the edge waiting. Clark comes up next to him and floats out the window, Batman follows and extends an arm which Superman grabs and lifts him out the window. He gives Conner a concerned look. “Will you be alright flying?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. I’ll meet you there if you go on ahead.” Conner answers, he’s better than before but his head still hurts and he still feels a little queasy. He won’t be able to go as fast as Superman to get back to Gotham.

Superman takes off with Batman in his grip and in Batman’s grip is the tin he was talking about.

Conner spends a few minutes looking through Luthor’s office after Batman and Superman leave. Of course he knows that Batman would have already checked everything but Conner wanted to do it himself anyway. He found nothing. Not a single thing which could tell him why Luthor left the tubes or what else he was planning.

_Just this once, I’ll be in touch one way or another._

The more Conner thinks about the note that Batman read out loud the more it made sense. ‘ _Just this once’_ obviously that means that Luthor is only going to be kind once, leaving (what he hopes) the formula for them. ‘ _I’ll be in touch one way or another’_ and that must mean whether Tim survives or dies.

Conner shakes the thoughts out of his head, he shouldn’t dwell on it too much. He’ll find out the answers soon enough to as why Luthor had done what he did for them. He heads back to the window and floats out into the night sky making a beeline for Gotham. He needs to get back and find out what's happening with Tim, hopefully Batman will give Tim those injections and he prays to god that if he does that they work.


	26. Taking A Chance

When Conner reaches the Bat cave he’s immediately greeted with shouting. Multiple voices are screaming at one another and Kon struggles to make out words. He walks into the main part of the cave to find Batman, Dick and Jason screaming at one another while Clark and Alfred stand near the med-bay.

Conner ignores the Bats and heads over to the med-bay, along the way he sees the tin placed on the desk by the big computer. He passes Clark and Alfred and walks straight up to Tim. Tim is still in a reclining position with an oxygen mask over his face, his eyes are open but it seems like he’s fighting off sleep because they close every few seconds before opening up again and his nose is still running with blood. The only differences from when he left a couple hours ago is that Tim isn’t currently coughing up his lungs and that there’s a bucket placed down by the bed. Was he throwing up now?

He sees Tim’s eyes widen a little when he spots him and Kon gives him a small smile. “Hey,” he says softly.

“You’re here?” Came Tim’s reply, it wasn’t more than a whisper and the oxygen mask wasn’t helping him to talk clearly. Thanks to Kon’s super hearing he can listen to what Tim was saying.

Conner tries not to let it get to him about how rough Tim sounds and what he even asked. “Yeah I’m here.” He tells the other teen.

Tim blinks owlishly at him for moment before speaking up again. “What’s with the shouting?”

Kon sighs looking away from him and out into the main part of the cave. “We - I - confronted Luthor and we now have, what I believe are the injections that were originally given to you to give you your powers.” Kon pauses to listen in on the shouting, trying his best to make out the words being screamed. “They’re shouting about whether to give them to you because they don’t fully know what is in the test tubes. It could make you worse or it could help. They don’t know.”

Kon waits for a reply but after a few minutes of not getting one he turns back to look at Tim expecting to see the other teen asleep but instead he sees Tim looking up at him with red rimmed eyes. “You went to Luthor?” He asks quietly.

“Yeah.”

Tim looks at him thoughtfully. “What did you – how did – why...” Kon’s heart feels heavy as he listens to Tim trying to get his words out. His voice is still rough and there’s still blood trickling down his face, he looks exhausted. It makes Kon want to cuddle him and to protect him from the world, _a little over the top there Kon, Tim wouldn’t even want that_.

Tim pauses taking a deep breath but that turns out to be a bad idea because a coughing fit suddenly takes over Tim. Conner is ashamed to admit that he stood there completely clueless and it wasn’t until Alfred appeared the other side of the bed that Conner realised how he could help. Alfred was taking off the oxygen mask and pulling Tim into an upright position, Conner helped to keep Tim steady until his coughing passed.

After giving him a drink they laid Tim back down and replaced the mask. Kon watched as Alfred took Tim’s hands and wiped them clean of blood from where he coughed into them. “How are you feeling Master Tim?”

“Same as before.” Tim mumbles unhappily.

He then looks up at Conner. “You found what I was injected with?”

Conner nods. “Yeah, well Luthor actually left it to us for some reason which I don’t know yet. Your brothers have a theory that the reason you are like this is because of your powers. They’re guessing that because you didn’t have regular dosages or something it's impacting your body causing it to bleed out.” He tries to explain to the other teen.

Tim frowns. “So they think that injecting me will regulate my body and fix me?”

“Something like that. It's hard to say because we don’t know if Luthor left the actual thing that you got injected with. It’s a risk and that's what they’re fighting over.” Conner notes that the shouting has stopped but the discussion hasn’t, he can still hear the anger behind each voice as they speak.

“Do it.”

Kon turns his attention back on Tim who’s looking at him with a serious expression and Conner is surprised Tim could even look like that in the condition he’s in, but honestly he shouldn’t even be surprised. “What?” He questions wondering if he heard right.

“Tell them to do it. Alf- “

“If you’re sure Mater Tim.”

Conner watches the butler leave the room only to come back a few seconds later with all the Bats behind him.

“Tim...” Batman starts (he’s still batman because the cowl is still up).

Tim looks towards them, his exhaustion seeping through once again, “Bruce please... if you have it, do it.”

“Tim we don’t know what is in it, it could be poison or a toxin, it could be lethal. I am not risking your life over something like that.”

If it's possible Tim looks taken back by Batman’s comment. It’s like he’s surprised to hear the man say that to him and Conner makes a mental note to ask Tim about it when all of this is over.

Tim lightly shakes his head, letting out a long breath. “It can’t make -”

He then makes a funny face behind the oxygen mask and Kon catches him making some kind of hand gesture and suddenly Conner finds himself being pushed out the way by Jason. Both Jason and Dick have ran up to the bed in a hurry after seeing the gesture, Conner is confused up until Dick is pushing Tim onto his side while taking off the mask and Jason is shoving the bucket underneath Tim’s head. Tim throws up into the bucket.

After a while when Tim has stopped throwing up Dick settles him back down on the bed while Jason wonders away with the bucket, as he passes by Kon gets a glimpse of the buckets contents to see that there’s a lot of blood in it, he can't help but wince, _that’s not good._ Conner helplessly watches Tim struggle to get his breathing right while Dick talks soothingly to him. Tim eventually looks up to Bruce. “It can’t make me... any worse than I already... am Bruce. Just... do it.”

Even with the cowl on Kon can tell that Batman was conflicted what to do. The next thing that is happening is that he’s walking away only to come back with the tin of test tubes. Everyone watches him as he takes out four and starts to prep some needles. Alfred joins him and makes the process much quicker. They both come back to the bed.

“Why four?” Dick questions them from where he’s standing next to the bed.

Batman looks over at him. “That’s how many Tim was injected with at a time, one in each limb if I remember correctly.”

From the bed Tim nods. “Yeah, start with... left shoulder to right to the thighs.”

Kon silently watches as Alfred moves to his side of the bed and as Bruce prepares to inject the first needle in Tim’s arm. He notices how Tim has clenched his jaw and is tightly gripping the bed sheets, mentally preparing for the injections. Kon reaches past Alfred and grabs one of Tim’s hands in his own, hoping to give some kind of reassurance to the other teen.

Bruce injects the first needle into Tim’s arm and Conner watches Tim grit his teeth. Alfred injects the second soon after and Tim lets out a hiss, his hand clenching Conner's. Bruce injects the third and Kon can hear Tim muffle his own scream. God, what the hell are the injections doing to him? If Kon wasn’t part Kyrptonian he’s pretty sure Tim would have broken his hand by how hard he’s squeezing it. After Alfred injects the fourth, Tim passes out.

Kon listens to Tim’s heart beat in panic while everyone else looks up at the heart monitor. There’s still a beat thankfully, though it's a little faster than what it should be but there’s a beat.

“What happens now?” Dick voices the question that they all must be thinking of.

“I guess we have to wait and see until he wakes up, whenever that may be.” Jason comments from next to him.

Bruce wordlessly moves away from them, taking the empty needles and the tin of test tubes with him. Alfred begins to check with all the medical equipment while Jason, Dick and Conner look over the sleeping teen.

“Didn’t you guys call a doctor or someone, would they be able to help?” Conner asks the brothers just remembering from earlier.

Dick speaks up. “Yeah, we called her but she’s dealing with a medical emergency, there’s been a major car crash and she can’t get to us for another 4 or 5 hours. If Tim doesn’t improve on whatever the hell we just gave him then we’ll have no choice but to take him to the hospital.”

Alfred excuses himself from the room while claiming everything is alright with Tim’s equipment, he asks for them to keep a close eye on the teen while he’s gone and to alert him immediately if anything happens. After agreeing, the half Kyrptonian and the two Bats fall silent as they carry on watching the teen sleep.

In that quiet moment a ring tone starts blaring out from one of the room occupants. The unexpected noise makes them all jump and it takes a moment for Conner to realise that it’s his phone ringing and he quickly grabs it from his pocket and answers it while walking out of the med-bay.

“Hello?” He speaks.

“Conner where are you? Do you know where Robin is, we’ve been looking for both of you and can’t find you! We called Robin but he wasn’t picking up. Is something wrong?” Cassie’s voice came through the speaker in a panicked hurry.

Conner winces. He completely forgot about his other team mates in the midst of everything that happened in the last day or so with Tim. He just then remembers that they don’t know what’s been going on with Robin lately either, it leaves Conner in a conflicted state on whether he tells Cassie and Bart about Tim’s powers or lie. The thing is Conner isn’t very good at lying which means that Cassie would immediately pick up on it.

“Conner? Conner Kent answer me! What’s going on?” He hears Cassie shouting from the phone speaker.

“Uh... okay, um... something has happened and I currently don’t know a lot of details but when I find out more I’ll call you.” He says quickly and abruptly hangs up on her. Probably not the wisest of actions to take in this situation but he kind of panicked.

A snort makes him look up and over at the med-bay. He sees Jason laughing and Dick reaching out to smack his brother with a scowl on his face. Dick rolls his eyes and starts heading towards Conner. “Let me guess, worried team mates?” He asks looking sympathetic.

Conner nods. “Yeah... I don’t really know what to say to her about...” He gestures over at the med-bay, “all of this.”

“Go to the Tower and tell them everything.” Dick says like it's the most obvious answer in the world.

Kon goes to protest, “But-”

“I know its Tim’s secret and he should have the choice but at this stage they deserve to know.”

“Won’t he get mad?” Kon asks feeling guilty at the aspect of telling Tim’s secrets.

Dick smiles softly and shrugs. “Probably, but he’ll have no choice but to get over it.”

Kon frowns but nods in understanding.

Dick places a hand on his shoulder and squeezes. “Conner, go to the Tower, get some sleep, explain to the others what is going on and I’ll call you if anything changes.”

At the look the older man was giving him Kon couldn’t say no so he just nods his head and starts to slowly make his way out of the cave, but not before checking over Tim one more time.

* * *

It was as soon as he touched down by the Tower that he was attacked by Cassie who instantly bombarded him with questions giving him no chance to answer any of them. A few seconds later in a blur Bart appears in front of him as well and joins Cassie in attacking him with words.

“Enough!” He shouts at his friends after having enough. His patience was wearing thin and he’s sure he can feel a headache forming once again, whether that was due to his friend’s loud voices or a lingering effect of kryptonite he wasn’t sure. Thankfully the shout worked as both of them quickly clamped their mouths shut. Taking a deep breath Conner begins to talk, “Look I know you both have questions and you both want answers, I will explain everything that’s going on to you and answer your questions okay. But can we do this inside rather than out here, please.”

His friends look at him for a long time and not saying anything, it's when Kon starts to feel uncomfortable that Cassie speaks up giving him a pointed glare, “Yeah okay, but you tell us _everything_.”

“Everything.” Kon confirms and starts to make his way indoors. His friends are right behind him.

As they make their way to the TV room Kon starts to feel the effects from the last couple days on his body. He feels tired, practically exhausted. He’s hungry, when was the last time he ate? He wants a shower and most importantly he just wants to collapse on his bed and sleep. He’ll return back to Gotham first thing tomorrow.

However first things first, he’s got to explain everything to his friends.

Entering the room Kon speaks over his shoulder to them, “You guys may want to sit down for this.” They give him funny looks but wordlessly sit down on one of the couches, Kon moves in front of them and begins to talk. “What I’m telling you is just what I know and what I’ve picked up on alright so just bare with me for a moment. Well, I guess it’d make sense to start from the start, so you remember when Robin disappeared for a few weeks back along...”

Conner tells them everything. He doesn’t leave any details out about what’s been going on with their team leader. As he talks he’s mildly aware of their faces morphing from shocked expressions to confusion back to shock. When he finishes up about 20 minutes later he looks at them both expectantly, waiting for the major explosion of questions that’s about to come.

To his surprise nothing happens. He watches them both carefully as they sit there in silence with thoughtful expressions, clearly going through everything that Kon had said. After a while he starts to get concerned. “Uh, you guys alright?” He asks hesitantly.

Cassie is the first to speak up. “I knew, I just _knew,_ that there was something going on between you two other than pining after one another. I just _knew_ it and couldn’t make out what it was. Though it all does make sense now.”

Conner can’t help but scoff at Cassie’s words. “We weren’t - aren’t - pining after one another... and what do you mean ‘it makes sense now’.”

Cassie rolls her eyes and answers. “His behaviour since he got back from being kidnapped _and_ your behaviour.” Then suddenly she’s turning around and slapping Bart on his arm, it makes the other teen jump at the action. “You owe me.”

Seeming to understand what she was on about Bart shakes his head. “No I don’t. You said ‘they’re going to get together’, they’re not together at the moment meaning you haven’t won.”

Cassie glares at Bart and Bart smugly smiles. “Yet...” she hisses at him with narrowed eyes.

Finally clicking onto what they were talking about Kon exclaims, “You guys made a bet on us?”

His friends both turn and give him a look like he was stupid for not realising this sooner. “Well duh idiot. It's about time too cause seriously that hatred thing you both had going on was petty dude. And that’s coming from me...” Bart tells him.

“I don’t like him like that... at all. We’re friends nothing more and nothing less.” Kon says crossing his arms, trying to deny it. Seriously out of everything he told them all they care about is the ‘attraction’ between the pair, rather than the very human Robin no longer being human Robin but now a meta human Robin?

“Yeah? Well in that case I'm Batman.” Cassie retorts.

Conner throws his arms up dramatically. “Seriously? Out of everything I told you that’s the only thing you care about, that I like Tim in that way now? Did you not hear when I told you that he’s currently bleeding out and throwing up blood on a bed in the bat cave? Or the fact that he has powers now!”

“So you do like him....”

“Oh my god!”

“Conner, we’re just teasing and of course we heard and yes we’re concerned but this is Robin we’re talking about. He’s too stubborn to let something like this get him down for very long, he’ll pick back up and whatever you guys injected him with will work. You’ll soon find out why Luthor left you those test tubes and you’ll get together with Tim once he’s better. It’ll all work out.”

Conner shakes his head against Cassie’s optimism. “You didn’t see him Cassie, it was bad. Really bad.”

Cassie stands up and puts a hand on his shoulder. “He’ll come through. Just wait and see.” She tells him gently and Conner looks at her. Lovely blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes which were currently full of hope and confidence.

Conner knows he still has some feelings for her but that ship has long sailed. They’ve both made their peace and moved on from one another. Then there’s Tim. Tim who has a brain that’s bigger than for his own good, he looks like he isn’t cable of a lot but can actually cause damage worse than a hurricane, he gets knocked down time and time again but always gets back up, who is emotionally troubled, smart, sarcastic, argumentative and opinionated.

_Damn, maybe I’ve fallen for him a lot more than I thought._

“I hope you’re right.” He says eventually.

Cassie smiles softly. “Yep, anyway get yourself to bed. You look dead on your feet.”

She gives him a little shove and Kon starts to walk but before he exits the room he turns around and asks, “You guys sure you’re okay with everything?”

“Yes Conner. Get to bed!”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m going.”                                  

He hopes Cassie is right in saying that Tim will get better. Maybe, he silently hopes, that she’s right about other things as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I know a while back I said that I only had a few chapters left to go but it turns out there was still a lot to go, however from this chapter there are only like 2 maybe three chapters to go. 
> 
> Thanks for reading up to here and stay tuned for the next bit :D


	27. Insecurities Spilling Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bruce and Tim have a heart to heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are with the next chapter! For those who have been waiting here it is finally where Tim and Bruce have a talk! This chapter was certainly fun to write :D   
> Please enjoy.

Tim wakes up confused. He opens his eyes to see a very familiar ceiling which looks like the bat cave’s med-bay ceiling, which doesn’t make sense because surely he’s at the Tower, right? As he tries to push himself up he becomes extremely aware of achiness in his limbs, it makes it difficult to move. Tim gives up and falls back down, feeling a pillow under his head and a mattress under his body which is surrounded by a cover.

“Baby Bird!”

The voice gets his attention and he turns his head looking for the owner, soon enough his brother appears in his sight and suddenly a lot more things become clearer. He _is_ in the bat cave in the med-bay. There’s an IV attached to his wrist and a blood bag hooked to his other one and then he notices a pressure on his face and works out that it's an oxygen mask. He also gets the distinctive taste of blood in his mouth with confuses him even more.

Sighing he relaxes into the pillows, but it's difficult considering his body is aching everywhere. He looks up at Jason and blinks a few times to focus his eye sight. “What happened?” he mumbles out. His voice is rough and his throat seems really dry.

Jason looks at him with concern. “What’s the last thing you remember?” He asks, voice seeming tight as he speaks.

Tim frowns at him and moves to take the mask off, Jason helps him and puts it to the side. “I was at the Tower...” he trails off looking at his wrists _, when was he injured? There’s a blood bag so that means he lost blood..._

_Then he remembers, sort of. It's fuzzy in his mind. He was coughing up blood in the Tower then Conner was there, he then came to Gotham.... there were injections? Something about Conner going to Luthor?_

“Well mostly kiddo.” Jason tells him still looking at him with concern.

Tim looks up at him. “What? I didn’t say anything.”

His brother then looks at him like he’s crazy. “You just said that all out loud.”

“Did I? Oh.”

“How are you feeling?”

“My body aches... throats dry and what happened?”

Jason solves the dry throat problem first, he helps Tim to sip some water which refreshes his throat though there’s still a coppery taste lingering in his mouth. Jason is then carefully sitting down on the bed next to Tim’s hip. “Tim look, you were dying. We didn’t know if you were going to make it. You were continuously coughing, and then you started to throw up blood. It was... yeah.”

Tim can easily see that Jason was shaken up by whatever happened and he started to feel guilty. He tries to reach out and grab Jason’s hand but found his arm to sore to move and barley managed to lift it off of the bed, it seemed that Jason caught the action and took hold of his hand and held it, gently squeezing it.

“Don’t worry about it Baby Bird, just get some more sleep yeah? We’ll explain everything to you when you next wake up.”

Tim wanted to protest but found that he was struggling to keep his eyes open. Keeping hold of Jason’s hand he easily falls asleep.

 

When Tim wakes up hours later he was once again confused and it took a little bit of time to remember everything that had happened. He was still set up in the bat cave and attached to the IV however the blood bag and oxygen mask have been removed. That has to be an improvement right? Tim tests his limbs to find that he can move them more than before but a dull ache still lingered around.

Looking around he finds that he’s alone. Unsure about what to he just decides to think. If he can remember correctly then he would say that they had found the original thing that he was originally injected with and injected them into him. If so then that would explain why he had achy limbs, that’s what happened the first time. He vaguely remembers something about Conner being here and talking about confronting Luthor... He certainly remembers bleeding and coughing up blood, so whatever they did must have helped fix him. But Jason had said something about dying didn’t he...

Damn his thoughts are all jumbled up. Nothing is making any sense.

Deciding that his brain is hurting too much to think rationally Tim opts for doing something else. From his thoughts he thinks about his telekinesis, wondering if he’s still got it. Focusing Tim can feel the familiar tingling sensation build up around his body and the warm sensation going through his skin, he focuses it to his palms and looks for something to move. He chooses the bed covers that are covering him, spreading out his powers he feels and grabs the corner of the sheet, it's soft to touch and easy to manoeuvre because of its lightness. Tim takes his time moving the sheet off him and folding it neatly down at the opposite end of the bed.

Once it's folded Tim stops and takes a breather, feeling out of breath and tired. At least he’s still got his powers and at least he still has control over them as well as not having to work super hard for them. After a few moments he worked on getting the covers back over him. It must have looked weird from another’s point of view, Tim thinks randomly, it must seem like a ghost is tucking him into bed.

Tim lets out an involuntarily giggle at the thought, just finding it funny. Out of all the things they deal with, ghosts wouldn’t even be out of the ordinary. (Some might say that they already have zombies in the world. A certain someone, like Jason Todd, could be classed as one, though no one is brave enough to say that to the man’s face despite the man himself making his own zombie jokes and comments.) Ghosts would just simply be added to the ever growing list on what they deal with.

Someone clearing their throat breaks Tim from his thoughts. Tim’s head snaps up and looks at the med-bay entrance to see Bruce standing in the door way. The man is dressed in a simple black t-shirt and grey sweatpants and for some reason looking slightly amused as he looks at Tim.

Tim freezes up, unsure on what to say or do. Did Bruce just see him use his powers? Bruce just heard Tim laughing to himself didn’t he? What’s he going to say?

“Tim, how are you feeling?” the man asks, any amusement on his face now disappearing. Tim opens his mouth to respond but closes it instantly. He tries again but no sounds come out. A frown appears on Bruce’s face. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong. I feel fine.” Tim gets out at last, finally finding his voice. Bruce steps towards the bed looking unconvinced and Tim quickly follows up with “At least I'm not coughing up blood anymore right?” He lets out an awkward laugh and then looks away from his adoptive father and down at his lap where his hands are.

“Tim-”

“I really was dying wasn’t I?” He whispers not looking up.

He hears Bruce taking a deep breath and letting it out. “Yes. Your body was fighting against itself, trying to rid of what was injected in you when you were taken. Unfortunately that meant trying to rid of your blood causing you to have nose bleeds, coughing it up and then throwing it up.”

Tim can’t help but wince, it kinda sucked. “But you found a way to counteract it.”

“That we did.” Bruce confirms. “Dick and Jason had a theory that the reason your body is fighting against itself was because it wasn’t having regular doses of the meta human cells you were injected with. We injected you with what you were originally given and that seems to be doing the trick of balancing your body once again.”

Tim nods in understanding. He distinctively remembers Conner telling him something similar.

“While you were asleep Leslie came around and looked you over,” Bruce starts to walk over to the bed, “She claimed that everything was looking up after we injected you, to the best of her knowledge she confirmed that it appeared that Dick and Jason’s theory was correct. You need regular dosages of the stuff to keep your blood levels balanced. How often you need to be injected is yet to be figured out. Unfortunately that means trial and error until we get it right.” By the time he was done he was sat down on the bed by Tim’s hip.

Tim takes a moment to digest what Bruce was saying. By the way he was talking it sounded like he was going to be keeping Tim around, which doesn’t make sense because surely Bruce would have wanted him out of the cave by now and most likely out of Gotham.

Keeping those thoughts private, Tim instead asks “How did you get what I was originally injected with?” Tim had a vague idea but he just wanted the story to be confirmed.

“The clo- Superboy went and confronted Luthor. For some reason Luthor left a tin full of test tubes, taking a chance we injected you with four of them and thankfully it seems to be working. I’m in the middle of replicating the formula for you so you won’t run out.”

Tim looks up to see Bruce looking at him, he’s not entirely sure what the man’s expression means but he’s sure he can make out concern. It's something that Tim knows Bruce only shows to the people he’s closet with. But that means that Bruce must still want him around if he’s doing all of them things for him, but then again he could just be replicating the formula so he could send them with Tim when he finally sends him away.

“You’re letting me stay here?” Tim blurts out without meaning to. He freezes once he realises what he said and looks away from Bruce, not wanting to see the man’s face.

“What?” Bruce sounds very confused, like he doesn’t even know why Tim is asking that sort of question.

Tim doesn’t say anything as he keeps looking in the other direction in shame.

“Tim... Tim look at me.”

He doesn’t. Tim doesn’t want to look. He stubbornly keeps looking away until a large hand cups the side of his face and starts to force him to look Bruce’s way. Tim fights against the hand but Bruce’s forces his head around just a little harder. Tim’s eyes meet Bruce’s and Tim doesn’t know what to think.

“Tim did you think I was going to get rid of you or something?” Bruce’s voice seems to be full of bewilderment.

Starting to feel tears building up Tim nods his head against Bruce’s hand. There’s no point hiding anymore. Any insecurities Tim has felt over the last couple of months are starting to spill out.

“Why do you think that? Is it because you now have powers?” Bruce questions gently.

Tim nods again, tears beginning to run down his face.

Bruce sighs and shifts on the bed, he raises his other hand so he’s fully cupping Tim’s face. His thumbs wipe away the tears on Tim’s cheeks. “Tim I want you to listen to me very carefully to what I’m about to say okay,” He waits for Tim to nod in his hands, when Tim does he continues speaking, “I would never not accept you. You’re my _son_ , I don’t care if you have powers. You always have a place here no matter what, you have a place in this family and powers be damned of that stopping you from belonging here.”

Hearing Bruce say those words just make the tears come out even faster and in a matter of seconds Tim is full out sobbing. He’s not entirely sure on why he’s crying so much but he does nothing to try and stop it.

Once again Bruce shifts on the bed and pulls Tim into a tight hug. His large arms easily wrap around Tim’s small frame. Tim buries his face in Bruce’s chest and lets himself be held, taking comfort from his adoptive father.

They stay like that for who knows how long, neither seeming willing to pull away but in the end Tim is the one to break the hug once he feels like he’s calmed down enough. Wiping his eyes he says “But what about you hating meta’s in Gotham?”

“I don’t _hate_ them, I just dislike them operating in my city. But I can certainly make an exception. I had wanted to talk to you about your powers for some time now but it just never seemed to be the right time.”

Tim chooses not to comment against that.

“Just now I saw you use them and it looks like you’ve got control of them, so I can assume your training sessions with Superboy are working?” He looks at Tim expectantly and Tim just nods, once again choosing not to comment. “Good. I’m sure we can make a deal here, if you don’t use you’re powers in Gotham you can use them with the Titans. I’d prefer you not to use them out in the field at all but I feel like you’ll go against me on that.”

Tim nods again, he’s pretty happy to go with whatever at the moment. He’s just over the moon that Bruce isn’t kicking him out.

Bruce untangles himself from the teen and stands up, “We’ll be keeping a close eye on you for the time being because we don’t know how often you’ll need the dosages. Once we work it out, we can sort something out.”

“Thank you Bruce.” Tim says looking up at the man with a small smile. He hopes his adoptive father can see how much he really means it.

Bruce smiles back, it being a genuine smile and not one he fakes who his whole ‘Brucie’ act. “Of course Tim. If you need to talk to me I’m always here to listen.” He leans over and ruffles Tim’s hair which Tim instantly tries to swat away his hands.

“Awww... Ain’t that just adorable...” A voice coos out.

Tim and Bruce both freeze and turn to look at the voice’s owner. They see Jason and Dick leaning against the doorway of the med-bay with fond smiles on their faces, well Dick’s is a fond smile while Jason’s is pretty sinister, like he’s happy that he caught potential black mail material for a later use. Tim can feel his face going red with embarrassment at being caught in such a tender moment, he can see that Bruce is unsure on what to do with himself.

Bruce then composes himself and stands up straight. He gives Tim a soft look, “Get some rest, we’ll talk more later on,” He then turns and looks sternly at the two eldest, “And you two, don’t pester your brother too much. He’s been through a lot. If any of you need me I’ll be in my study, Alfred is also around if you need him.”

As Bruce walks out of the med-bay Jason calls out “We always prefer Alfred over you Bruce, it’s not a hard competition to choose!”

From somewhere in the cave they hear a “Love you to Jaybird.”

Both Tim and Dick let out giggles at the look Jason gives after hearing Bruce’s retort. “I was expecting something better than that.” He sounds disappointed.

Tim settles back down on the bed as his brothers come over stand by him. “How long were you guys stood there?” He questions curiously. Tim didn’t notice them at all and by the way Bruce acted neither had he.

“Long enough.” Dick answers with a smile.

Tim goes to question him but gets cuts off when a musical tune starts to blare out from somewhere. Dick sighs and digs through his pockets until he finds his phone, the ringing stops once Dick rejects whoever is calling him.

Tim frowns. “What’s wrong?”

“Superboy keeps on calling me. Like repeatedly. He keeps calling and texting me asking how you are and if you’re alive.”

“Why doesn’t he just come here? He was here before wasn’t he?”

“He was yeah but we sent him away because he looked exhausted and because your other team mates were ringing. We told Superboy that he can see you when you’re better and when you want to, there was no point him being here when you’re asleep.”

Tim thinks over that. Conner has been constantly calling and asking how he was, he cared that much for Tim to do that. For some odd reason Tim feels guilty that he caused Conner to worry like that. Then there’s his other friends whom he had completely forgot about! He wonders what Cassie and Bart must be thinking about his situation or what they even know about it. Maybe Conner went back and told them everything. He wouldn’t blame Conner for telling them because they have the right to know but it was Tim’s secret to tell, not his.

“Timmy-“

He snaps his attention to his brothers “Yeah?”

“You blanked out that’s all.” Dick says looking worried.

Tim waves him off, “I’m fine, just a little tired.”

He sees Dick bob his head up and down, “Okay, how about tomorrow if you’re feeling up to it and everything is okay body wise we go to the tower and you can see your friends.”

Tim nods, agreeing.

“Also before you get pissy, I was the one to tell Superboy to tell your team mates about everything that has happened alright. So don’t go arguing with him about it okay. I know it’s your secret but they had the right to know, especially with what just happened.”

Tim wants to protest, saying that he wasn’t going to get pissy but stopped himself because that’s exactly what he had thought himself, Dick telling Superboy just made a little more sense to why Conner would tell them.

“Baby Bird.” Jason called his attention, Tim looks up at him. “I told you didn’t I, that Bruce wouldn’t kick you out.” He didn’t say it mockingly which Tim was surprised but grateful for, Jason knew about how much Tim had worked himself up about it. He had said it softly and spoke it like a fact. Maybe he should be mocking him instead because as Tim looks back he realises that he did overreact just a little bit.

Tim just smiles knowingly, he did tell him.

“Anyway Timmers, Alfred is making some food if you’re feeling up to going back up to the Manor then if you want you can go back to your own room.” Dick says looking at him.

Tim thinks about it for a moment. “Yeah okay. I’m kinda hungry.” He starts to sit up and Jason leans over to help him. His brother then turns around and bends down, revealing his back.

“Get on Timmy.”

“I’ll go ahead and let Bruce know that you’re moving.”

Before getting on Jason’s back Dick removes the IV from his wrist and then Tim wastes no time climbing on his brother’s back for a piggy back ride back up to the Manor.

He found himself smiling the whole time.


	28. Finally

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is guys! The second to last chapter of this story. Sorry it's taken a while to get it up but here it is. please enjoy and by the way this chapter is practically fluff, so yeah... 
> 
> :D

Late next morning Tim and Dick were on their way to the Tower. Tim had sent Conner a text saying he was fine and coming to the Tower that day to stop him from blowing up Dick’s phone with calls and messages. Tim’s not really sure about how he should feel about that. Was Conner really that concerned over him? Tim wasn’t sure if he was happy, guilty, concerned or even annoyed by it. In the end he decides to push them thoughts and feelings away, he’ll think about it another time. (Most likely never).

Tim looks over to his eldest brother, “What’s Bruce doing about Luthor?”

Dick shoots him a glance before looking out the window, “To be honest Timmy I have no idea. Jay and I did question B about it but he just said that he’ll take care of it and that we need to keep our focus on you, to make sure you’re alright and what not.” Dick then scoffs, “Like we weren’t going to do that anyway. Speaking of which how are you feeling this morning? You’re certainly looking better than yesterday.”

Tim takes a moment before answering. So Bruce was keeping it secret about how he was dealing with Luthor, Tim’s kind of annoyed at that because surely _he_ should be allowed to know what was going on after everything that has happened.

“I’m fine thanks.” Tim answers. And honestly he was, he felt a lot better than yesterday. He hasn’t coughed or thrown up blood since being injected, his powers are working and he actually, for once, feels okay.

“Okay good, if you feel differently at all let me or someone else know immediately.” Dick tells him sternly. Tim simply rolls his eyes at his brother’s protectiveness.

10 minutes later and the Tower comes into sight. Dick expertly parks the plane off to the side and the brother’s starts to make their way out. Before leaving the plane Dick tells Tim that he’s going to go find Kori and that he should spend time with his friends. Dick then moves on ahead, leaving Tim to his own devices.

Tim meets Cassie first, she was about to walk out of the Tower when he walked in. Instantly she pulled him into a hug and gave him a soft squeeze. “Tim thank god you are okay! Are you okay? Conner told us everything that’s been happening over the last couple months and obviously because we haven’t seen you-”

Tim cuts off Cassie’s rambling. “Cassie. I’m fine alright. Whatever they injected me with seems to be doing its job. I’m no longer having nose bleeds and coughing up blood. I’m good.” He tells her honestly. He sees her relax a little bit and they share a smile.

“If you’re sure Tim... You know you could have always told us, we wouldn’t have thought of you differently. We could have helped as well, we each know what it’s like to try and control new found powers and how scary and difficult it can be.”

Tim ducks his head in embarrassment. He knows he could go to them but at the time he just didn’t. He sighs, “I know Cassie, I’m sorry I didn’t... next time I will though.”

Cassie reaches out and places a hand on his shoulder, “Tim you _can_ talk to us. We’re your team mates, even more we’re your friends. We’re here for you no matter what.”

With how much certainty is in her voice Tim feels a swell of emotion inside. It's good knowing that they’ll always be by his side.

Then between them both there’s a sudden burst of wind and Bart is standing in front of Tim, shoving a doughnut in his face. Tim’s able to make out Bart swallowing the food before he’s getting crushed in another hug. “Hey Bart.” He says hugging the other teen back.

“Tim, you’re back and you have powers! Awesome! Seriously bro, why didn’t you tell us? We could have helped. Hey, are you still Robin or do you now have to find a new alias to go around as? Supes said that you’re getting pretty good with your powers.” Bart shoots the questions straight after one another as he releases Tim from the hug. Before Tim could even think of any answers there’s a breeze of wind and another one seconds after, Bart is once again stood in front of him stuffing with face with cookies this time.

“Um...” Tim stands there for a moment, thinking up explanations. “I apologise to you for not saying anything, I know I can trust you but I guess I was too busy freaking out to be thinking rationally. I am still Robin, however I’m making a deal with Batman that I don’t use my powers within Gotham.” Tim picks up on what else Bart had said. “What was Conner saying about me?”

He watches as both Cassie and Bart share a look before turning back to Tim smiling. It immediately puts Tim on edge. What did they know that he didn’t? “Guys?”

Cassie answers first, her smile never wavering. “Nothing bad, I promise. He was just describing your different training sessions that’s all. It sounds like you made a lot of progress from the start.”

Tim notices that she’s implying something else but he just can’t place what it is. “What is it that you guys are hiding from me?”

They both shake their heads (though Bart’s is just a blur). “We’re not hiding anything Tim. Nice to know that just because you have powers now, doesn’t mean that your paranoia has disappeared.” Cassie comments.

Tim eyes her wearily but can’t help but think about Conner, a sudden surge has risen up in him to go see the other teen. Cassie is then stretching out and grabbing his hand and starts to drag him down the corridor, after a few moments she lets go and they all carry on walking. They walk in silence and Tim tries to come up with a question to ask his friends but for some reason all his questions seem to be Conner related. How’s Conner? What did Conner really say to you guys? Where is Conner, is he alright? How much detail did Conner share with you guys, do I need to elaborate anything?

They round a corner and suddenly appearing at the other end of the corridor is the teen in Tim’s mind.

“Tim!” The half Kyrptonian exclaims, Tim stops walking and becomes very aware of how his heart had started to beat that little bit faster when Conner appeared in his sight. Tim watches Conner walk up to him, he’s in his costume so the black shirt and red S stretches nicely over his chest, his jeans fitting snugly around his legs. Tim notices that Conner’s hair seems to be a bit devilish, like he kept running his hands through it.

Before he knows it Conner is pulling him into a tight hug against his chest. Tim finds himself wanting to completely melt into those muscular arms and has to work hard to stop himself from doing so. In an awkward shift he manages to work his arms free and put them around Conner’s shoulders. They hug for a very short period of time before letting go of one another. Tim can’t help but pick up on the idea that they both seemed reluctant to part.

Conner looks down at Tim with a wide smile, white teeth gleaming and everything. “You’re okay. You’re alive!”

Tim lets out a little laugh before making eye contact with the other teen, his heart begins to beat even faster “Yeah... I guess I have you to thank for that right?”

Conner reaches up and scratches the back of neck, a blush appearing on his cheeks in embarrassment. _Too cute... damn it._

“Um I guess so?” Conner says sounding pretty unsure, then he’s straighten up and getting a harder look on like he’s covering up that vulnerable look, “I mean I couldn’t have you dying on me now could I? I would lose my rep if that happened.” He says with a smile which easily let’s Tim know he’s joking.

Rolling his eyes playfully, Tim answers back “Yeah because that’s all you care about right?”

“Yep.” Conner replies popping the p.

“So what about the constant messaging and calling Dick all day yesterday, was that all about your rep?” Tim questions with a sly smile.

“Well you see... my phone kept glitching out on me and kept ringing the last person I contacted. So that’s not my fault.”

Tim nods taking the bullshit lie. “Uh-huh. And what about angrily storming off and then confronting Luthor, was that just part of your rep as well?”

Conner takes longer to answer this time. “Uh... well... he was, um, he was recently pissing me off and having to carry you all the way to Gotham kind of pissed me off so I went and took my anger out on him?” He defends weakly, now looking completely unsure of himself and slowly dropping that tough guy look.

Tim carries on smiling, liking this game. “Yeah okay I can see why you would want to go beat up Luthor, I certainly would. Okay, what about when you took and held my hand just before they injected me?”

Conner gapes at him for a moment before dramatically throwing up his hands. “Okay, fine! You got me! You win or whatever.” Tim’s smile drops as he sees Conner physically sag. “You had me worried Tim, like really worried.” His voice then drops almost to a whisper, “When I saw you bleeding out on that bed, coughing up blood, making those horrid whimpering noises and struggling to breathe... you certainly had me on edge dude.”

Tim doesn’t comment as he watches Conner look away with a pained expression. Instead of his heart beating faster it starts to clench tight. It’s only then, in the silence that followed Conner’s confession, that Tim realises how close they are. They’re still in each other’s personal space, close enough to be sharing body heat, their bodies inches apart. Tim finds himself enjoying it, wanting to feel it more often.

At that point something clicks inside of Tim and he mentally goes _fuck it._

Tim doesn’t know what made him do it. Whether it was the body heat and the sudden surge of passion, or Conner’s confession of being worried over Tim or even Tim’s guilty feeling about worrying Conner, he just doesn’t know.

Reaching up Tim cups Conner’s jaw and forces his head around. In his hand he can feel the clench of Conner’s jaw and the solid bone structure underneath. Conner lets his head get turned around and he looks down at Tim with wide blue eyes. The two of them make eye contact and in a heated moment Tim shifts his hand around to the back of Conner’s head and forces his head down.

Tim crashes their lips together.

Tim could feel Conner freeze against him, but before he could even think about regretting his move Conner’s lips are then moving against his and is kissing him back.

Kissing. They are actually kissing. Conner’s lips are against his. In a kiss.

It’s like fireworks are going off inside Tim’s head. He’s finally got to know what the other teen’s lips are like and he’s surprised to find that they’re soft yet rough and full of passion.

Tim feels Conner wrap a strong arm around his back and how he presses Tim up tight against him so their bodies line up perfectly as they kiss. His other hand goes to Tim’s head and presses there lightly, encouraging Tim to keep kissing him.

For his part Tim keeps pressing harder against the other teen trying to melt as much as he can into the other body. His hand is still on Conner’s head and the other he’s placed on the meta’s hip, fingers clenched tightly into the fabric of his t-shirt.

Suddenly Tim can feel Conner’s tongue pressing against his lips and Tim let’s him have full access to his mouth. He lets out a moan as they continue to passionately kiss, as Conner's tongue explores his mouth. He can’t remember the last time he’s kissed like this, if he ever had before. It’s hot and slightly messy, but does he care? No.

Unfortunately Tim is human and human’s need to breathe. Tim starts to pull away hoping Conner will easily let him, thankfully Conner immediately gets it and lets him go. Tim pulls his head back panting slightly, and without thinking he rests his head against Conner’s shoulder to find that it’s quite comfy. He feels Conner duck his head so it's resting lightly against Tim’s.

They stay silent for a few moments catching their breaths and once Tim feels back to normal he pulls away from Conner’s shoulder and looks up at the other teen to find him looking down at him. They share a warm smile which causes an eruption of a warm sensation inside of Tim.

“Well... that was... um...” Conner starts saying but can’t seem to finish it.

“Yeah...” Tim comments back, feeling the same way. He has no idea on how to describe what the hell just happened. But it's easy to say that he does not regret it. He feels Conner shift around, the hand on his head disappears and a second arm wraps around his back. Tim does the same soon after and finds it to be much more comfortable.

Suddenly loud shouts can be heard from down the corridor that makes them both look up in shock. “YES!” “FINALLY!”

It's only then he remembers that he wasn’t alone when he greeted Conner. He groans and then hides his flushed face against Conner’s neck. He hears, and feels, Conner laughing. “You know I actually forgot they were even here.”

Tim nods in agreement. _Maybe that’s what they knew all along?_

“You know they had a bet on us right? Whether we would get together or not or something like that, I’m not 100% sure what the bet is actually about but I’d rather not know.”

That gets Tim to look up. “You know what, that does not surprise me in the slightest, though I will be having words with them later on.”

Conner laughs once again.

They stay hugging for a while in the middle of the corridor. Neither of them seeming to inclined to move. Tim just takes the moment to enjoy being in Conner’s arms. He doesn’t stop thinking about that kiss they had just seconds ago. He can’t help but smile, Conner kissed him back with what seemed like no hesitation after he got over that initial shock.

What seemed like too soon they both parted but stayed in close proximity of each other. Tim looks up to see Conner looking back at him with an intense look, he quickly looks away feeling his cheeks heat up. A hand reaches forward and cups his face, turning him to look back up at Conner. Tim had seconds to prepare himself before Conner was planting a second kiss against his lips.

Tim kisses back but unlike their first kiss this is a slow and less demanding one. Slow slides of their lips almost like it’s just testing to see how the other will react. They pull apart soon afterwards and Tim feels Conner bump their noses together. “You have no idea about how much I have wanted to kiss you...” Conner speaks, his breath tickling Tim’s cheek.

Tim lets out a small laugh. “Well I can say I have been waiting for that for a while as well.” He then pulls further away from Conner. “We have _a lot_ to talk about.”

Conner nods, “That we do.” He agrees easily.

“I didn’t even know you liked guys...” Tim says warily.

Conner nonchalantly shrugs. “Neither did I, but you’re something special man. Guess I’m bi-sexual.” Tim tries not to blush at that comment.

“Tim.”

Tim looks back up at Conner to see him looking at him with a grim expression. He’s not sure if he’s ever see the other teen look like that before.

“Luthor’s going to come after you, you know that right. Now because you’re not dead he’s going to come after you.”

Tim takes a moment to think before answering. Conner looks almost scared for him and he can’t help the warmth that spreads inside of him to know that Conner is like that, that he cares for him and it isn’t one big joke, (he hopes not, thinking about it Conner could easily turn around and say only joking!). It’s different to how Dick and Jason look over him.

“I don’t know Conner. I don’t know what Luthor wants or what he’s going to do, but if he does come then let him. I’m not running away anymore.” Tim tells him truthfully. If Luthor wants him then he’s going to have a hard time getting him. Tim will fight back all the way. If Conner is by his side along with Cassie and Bart, then that’s even better.

He sees Conner smirk. “Come on, we better get back to the others before they think that we’re doing something we shouldn’t be.” The other teen then wraps one arm around Tim’s shoulders and presses him into his side as they start to walk down the corridor.

“Well, before we even think about doing anything along those lines we have a lot to talk about as I said.” Tim tells him.

Conner gives him a look of hurt. “Always gotta be the buzz kill Tim. Is this what it’s going to be like dating you? Because if it is, then I’ve got my work cut out for me.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Tim exclaims smacking Conner on the chest.

“Well you can be pretty uptight dude, but I’ll squeeze some of that out of you. Make you live a little.” Conner comments with a smirk.

Tim sends him a sharp look. “Well excuse me for being uptight, my life isn’t exactly easy going.”

The arm around him squeezes him as Conner lets out a little laugh. “I know, I know. But I’ll make sure you get the right down time when you need it. You know, you should come with me to the farm one day. I reckon you’d like it, Ma and Pa would love you.”

Tim feels the tension seeping out of him. He can probably guess that dating Conner is going to be a handful, especially if they keep clashing like they always have but when he looks up and sees that hopeful smile and his blue eyes sparkling Tim is reminded exactly why he’s got a crush on this teen. And it’s not just because of his good looks, Tim is learning that Conner does care in his own way and inside that hard chest of his there is a heart and the idea of finding it makes him kind of excited. He’s already had a taster but he wants the whole thing.

They eventually make it to the TV room where they unexpectedly find most of their friends chilling out watching TV. Cassie and Vic are sharing one couch, the other is occupied by Dick, Kori and even more of a surprise Wally and on the floor is both Bart and Gar. Cassie happens to be the first one to see them enter.

“Wow, done all ready? I would have thought you’d be at least an hour.” She says with a playful smile.

At this comment all the others turn their heads to watch them walk further in the room. Tim becomes very aware of the arm around his shoulders and tries to move away from Conner, but the other teen doesn’t let him go and he only squeezes his arm tighter.

“We actually decided that we both have a lot to talk about before all that so don’t get your hopes up there Cas.”

Tim watches as her playful smile shapes into an understanding one. Feeling himself getting embarrassed by all the attention Tim once again tries to squirm out of Conner’s hold. “Conner.” He hisses. “Let me go.”

“Wait... Are you saying that they’re together now?” someone asks, Tim recognises it as being Wally.

“Yeah, just happened like 10 minutes ago.” Cassie replies sounding too smug.

“Finally, it’s about time...” That was from Vic.

A few laughs broke out after that comment and that makes Tim freeze from where he was struggling to get out of the headlock that Conner now had him in. He was getting close to breaking out his telekinesis when the comment made him freeze. “‘Finally!’ What the hell do you mean by finally?” he exclaims.

“For god sake Tim, you’re supposed to be the detective here. All that bickering, trying to always outdo one another, we all knew you really had it in for each other and never actually hated one another.”

Conner finally lets him go and he straightens up sending Cassie a look. “We actually did hate one another and whether we’re now dating or not is still to be discussed between us.” Tim watches in annoyance as most of the room occupants roll their eyes at what he said. The half Kyrptonian  starts walking towards the couch Cassie and Vic vacated. “So what’s on today’s agenda?” He asks as he settles down next to Cassie in the space she had made for him.

“Besides waiting for the world to be in peril, watching movies and snacking on pizza.” Gar responds from the floor. Conner nods accepting the answer for what it is.

Tim hovers around unsure about what to do. Of course he wants to hang around with all his friends but at the same time he really just wants to be alone with Conner so they can talk everything out (and even possibly make out, he still can’t get over the couple of kisses that they shared.)

“Dude get your uptight ass over here.” He hears Conner call from his place on the couch. Tim frowns but starts to make his way over, sitting with friends it is. They can always talk later. Most of them have turned back to the TV but as he walks over to Conner on the couch he can feel Dick’s eyes on him, he turns and gives his brother a small smile and he gets a bigger one in return with thumbs up.

Tim rolls his eyes at Dick’s childish actions and suddenly he’s realises that he’ll be getting a talk from _both_ of his brothers later on. There’s no doubt that Dick will send Jason a text telling him about Tim’s relationship status.

Tim goes to sit on the floor by Bart when suddenly an invisible aura wraps around him and stops his movements. Tim does nothing to fight it as he’s forcefully moved from the floor over to the couch. As the invisible hold lets him go he’s then being dragged onto Conner’s lap by Conner himself. “You can sit here.” Conner tells him as he manhandles Tim around.

In the end Tim is sat across Conner, his butt in Conner’s lap and his legs just stretching over Cassie’s lap, though she doesn’t seem to mind and pays them no attention. If Tim wanted to in his position he could lay his head on Conner’s shoulder and bury his face in the meta’s neck (it’s getting more tempting with each passing second). Even with the new relation between them Tim found that he could not relax while he was sat on Conner. He can’t really say why it was hard for him to because he doesn’t know. He just finds he can’t.

Conner must have picked up on it because he’s reaching over and dragging Tim closer into him, forcing him to lie against his chest and forcing his head to rest on his shoulder. “Relax, I know this is all new and I _do_ want to talk about it but for now let’s just do this so we can slowly get more comfortable yeah?” Conner whispers into his ear quietly.

Tim still couldn’t fully relax but found the position a lot more comfortable than before. He nods against Conner’s shoulder. “Yeah sounds good.”

As the time went on Tim found himself slowly relaxing against Conner, he finds that the half Kyrptonian makes a comfy pillow and gives off the perfect amount of body heat. “Hey Kon,” Tim starts pulling back just enough to look up at his face, Conner looks down his blue eyes sparkling, Tim sends him a warm smile “thanks.”

Conner sends back a warming smile that has Tim’s insides sizzling up. “No problem.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It finally happened and they got together! I have been wanting to write that since the very start of this story, it did turn out differently to how I originally planned but I was happy with the outcome anyway and hope you guys enjoyed it too. 
> 
> There's one more chapter to be posted which will wrap this story up. I have kind of left it open so there could be a sequel, but truth be told I haven't really thought about writing one. If people would like one then I guess let me know and I'm sure I could come up with something over time but for the time being I don't have one planned (yet).


	29. Epilogue

Months later...

Tim was in Gotham at the time when all the Titans were called up for help. As it were an alien invasion was happening in San Francisco, a robot alien invasion. Go figure.

Tim meets his team down in the streets where the fighting has already developed into major battles. Car alarms were going off, civilians were screaming, babies crying, different building alarms going off and multiple sirens were wailing away. Of course from a few years practice Tim’s able to block out a majority of these sounds. His concentration is needed on these seven foot robotic creature things that are currently plaguing the city.

From what the team has already gathered all they have to do it cut these things in half and they stop functioning. Poor design on these things if it's that easy to take them down. Tim wonders where they came from and why they’ve come to Earth. He wants to guess that it’s Green Lantern’s fault, he probably pissed off the wrong planet or something.

Just from his right a particularly loud scream occurs and gets his attention, he sees a woman curling around a young boy in fear as one of the robots advance towards them. Tim takes action and as he runs towards the robot he whips out his Bo staff and extends it to full length. From a couple meters away he jumps in the air and twists, bringing his staff around and into the robot as he lands. His staff cuts neatly through the robot and the two halves land on the floor.

Tim looks up at the frightened civilians, in his Robin voice he says “It’s going to be okay, what I need you both to do is get out of here and get as far away as you can.” The woman frantically nods and immediately starts to drag the boy away. Tim doesn’t watch them go as he turns back to the chaos and settles on destroying another robot who had ventured too close to him.

The fight goes on for another 15 minutes. During that time Tim has acquired some new bruises, a small gash on his shoulder and even a potential sprain in his wrist but he’ll have to look at them once it’s completely over. From where he’s standing all the robots are destroyed and it seems like it’s over. He scans the area he’s in searching for any ones that may be lurking but he doesn’t find any, even the motion sensors in his mask doesn’t pick up on anything.

There’s a crackle in his ear and his com is being activated. “Guys... a little help... please... like right now!”

Kon.

Tim is instantly moving, running down the street making his way through the abandoned cars and piles of robot pieces. He heads for the last location he saw Conner fighting in, hoping that he’s still there.

Thankfully he was still in the same place but what Tim saw made him freeze. In front of him was a giant version of the robots he was just fighting. He thought the others were tall but this one is huge, at least towering at thirteen feet high. How the hell did he miss that?

It was currently trying to crush Conner with its foot. Tim watches as Conner pushes against the foot, keeping it from squishing him, super strength or not that thing has a ton more pounds on Conner and the half Kyrptonian looks worse for wear as he resists the giant foot. Tim worries for him because the meta was exposed to kryptonite just the day before and has yet to be fully recovered meaning he’s weaker than usual. (Tim spent a majority of last night on face time to the other teen as he was forced to stay in Gotham due to a charity function he couldn’t weasel his way out of.)

Tim’s the first one to arrive out of his team and there’s no way he can go up against that thing alone. It's hard to tell if the thirteen foot robot has the same weakness as its smaller counter parts did because it's certainly much more bulky.

Tim hesitates for a moment trying to decide the best cause of action. Superboy was still struggling keeping the foot from crushing him and Tim himself isn’t enough to destroy it. When the others come they can focus on ripping the robot in half but what can he do...

He then gets an idea on how he could potentially help and Tim starts to sprint towards Conner.

As he gets close he dives under the foot and lands right up against Kon. Conner glances over before letting out a grunt as the foot moves towards them an inch from where he lost his concentration for a second. “What... What are you... doing here... dumbass...” He grunts out.

Tim chooses not to take offence and decides not to say anything as he reaches out towards the foot with his hands. Taking a deep breath he focuses on his powers and wills them to come out. He pushes his telekinesis to his palms and stretches them over the foot. Tim can instantly feel the weight of it and starts to push against it along with Conner. It's hard and it's heavy, he’s putting all the effort he can into it, willing his powers to push out away from him in order to move the foot upwards.

Within seconds Tim has sweat rolling down the sides of his face, he’s struggling to keep it up but he carries on pushing. He knows he’s nowhere near as strong as Conner but if he can help move the foot even an inch then it's worth the struggle.

Slowly, ever so slowly, the foot starts to move away from them however their winning status doesn’t last very long because it’s suddenly pushing against them even harder than before. Tim lets out a pained sound as Conner lets out another grunt at the newly added pressure against them. Despite the exertion he’s feeling in his arms Tim keeps pushing, not willing to give up.

He’s not sure how long they fight against it for, it seems like hours but really it's probably only a few seconds. Tim’s arms are now shaking as he struggles to keep his powers going. He’s noticed that his breathing became shallow a little while ago but he’s trying to not focus on that right now.

But it all ends when suddenly the foot vanishes from above them and the pressure disappears allowing them both to breathe. Tim reels in his telekinesis and takes a moment to get his breath back, gulping in the fresh air that's been revealed to them. He lets his shaking arms lay back down as he takes a moment to compose himself.

A second later he starts to feel a hand run through his hair, being totally unprepared for the touch it makes him jump. He looks to see Kon smiling at him as he strokes Tim’s hair. Tim takes the moment to lean into it as he smiles back.

Their little tender moment is disrupted by some very loud cussing from their team mates. _Right, still fighting a battle here._ Kon gives him a sheepish look before pushing himself back up and onto his feet. Tim takes a little longer to get to his feet but once he was up right he felt the world tilt to the side. Before he can collapse on the floor muscular arms are slowly lowering him down to the ground. “Rob? What's wrong?”

Tim waves Conner off. “I’m fine... blood just went straight to my head that's all. Give me a sec, you better get helping.”

They both look over to see Bart and Cassie taking on the robot on their own. Cassie was punching the thing side to side trying to find weak spots while Bart ran up, down and around it to disorientate it.

“You sure you’re okay?” Conner asks, looking unconvinced.

Tim gets back to his feet and manages to stay upright. “Yes I’m sure.” He looks at the robot to try and work out how to stop it. The smaller ones simply had to be cut in half, if this is the same then they’ll need to _rip_ this thing apart.

Coming up with an idea he turns his com on and speaks to the others. “Guys, what you need to do is rip this thing apart, if it's like it's smaller counterparts then that's all it should take. Kid Flash, what you need to do is start stripping the metal away from its middle, start making it thinner. Wonder girl, Superboy, what you guys need to do is fly straight through where Kid has ripped its metal away, go straight through. Take any wires and mechanisms with you if you need.”

Tim looks to Superboy for confirmation, he knows that Kon must be feeling exhausted but he hopes he can do this. Conner just simply gives him a determined nod before taking off in the air.

“While you guys do that I’m going to try and get its attention.”

Tim runs forward and starts to fumble through his belt looking for his explosives. Grabbing multiple ones he stops in front of the robot which is currently trying to swat Cassie away from where she was punching it. Tim launches one of his explosives at the robots head. It explodes and that's enough to grabs it's attention.

Tim then finds himself diving and dodging all over the place to avoid from being stepped on. He keeps on sending explosives at its head every chance he got. Thankfully he doesn’t have to do it very long because as Cassie and Conner both pierce the thing it starts to go off balance. Each time they go through they leave a bigger gap behind, in one way and out the other.

Soon enough Conner takes the last hit and splits its body from its legs. The two halves of the robot fall lifelessly to the ground and just like that it was over.

The four of them know better than to celebrate victory too soon. They wait for ten minutes before deeming that it is in fact defeated and then alerted the authorities to come and clear up. When they arrive the Titan’s hover around to see if they’re needed but when it’s clear that they are no longer needed they head back to the Tower. They’ll let the League deal with everything else.

It's only when they get back to the Tower that they celebrate their victory. Conner and Bart let out loud cheers and high five while Cassie and Tim just share a smile. Tim watches with amusement as Conner and Bart start talking about celebratory pizza and movie/game night. Cassie engages the conversation saying what she wants to have on her side of the pizza and what films she wants to watch.

Tim simply lets them be, unlike them he doesn’t have speed healing, there are several cuts and bruises he needs to take care of. He walks to his room and then takes a moment to sit on the bed, letting himself relax for a minute before doing anything.

He still feels slightly light headed but he can guess that's because of the amount of power he had used earlier on. He doesn’t thinks he’s ever pushed himself that hard with his powers before. Just thinking about it he’s pretty sure that's the first time he’s actually used his powers in a real battle.

Since the start he’s come a long way with his powers, of course there’s still a whole lot more he can and needs to learn but he’s much better than before. By the looks of it the powers are permanent, as long as he keeps up to date with his regular injections he should be fine. He and Bruce had worked out that Tim needs to take 4 injections all at once at least once a month, so every 4 weeks. He’s okay with that, the injections don’t exactly please him but if he wants to stay alive then it's a small price to pay.

Luthor has still yet to make a move. He’s gone on radio silence since Kon had seen him and no one else has seen him since. With Luthor’s absence it’s put Tim on edge, Bruce included and of course Clark and Conner have been wary. They’ve been searching for him but nothing is coming up, so who knows what that man is up too. Tim silently hopes he isn’t experimenting on anyone else, it's hard to say if he has been or not. They didn’t even know Luthor was doing human experimentations until Tim, so it's impossible to know if he’s carried on doing them.

Tim had thought about contacting Zatanna once again now he knows what’s been causing his powers to appear but he decides against it. He’ll keep them, now he knows Bruce won’t disown him and kick him out of Gotham it’s fair to say he wants to keep them and have a go with them even more to see what he can really do.

Tim’s disturbed from his thoughts when knocking comes from his bedroom doorway. He looks up to see Kon looking at him with concern.

“Hey.” Tim greets him, with a smile.

Kon walks into the room. “Hey, you okay man? I noticed that you disappeared from the room, I wanted to come and check on you.”

Tim shrugs his good shoulder, “I’m good, a little banged up but nothing that won’t heal up in a couple of days. Unlike you guys I don’t have super healing.” Tim gets up of the bed and makes his way into his bathroom, Kon follows him and leans against the doorway watching him.

Tim shuffles through the bathroom to get his first aid kit. It has bandages he can use to wrap his wrist and it even has a suture kit if he needs it for his shoulder. He needs to have a look at it to decide how bad it is first.

“You’re injured?” Kon questions as Tim walks past him and back over to the bed.

Tim waves his concern away. “It’s fine, nothing that I haven’t had before.”

“Tim, what’s wrong?”

“It’s fine Kon, really...”

“Tim.”

Tim looks up to see that Conner has come closer to him and is currently giving him his ‘no bullshit’ look. Tim’s really tempted to challenge him and say that he’s not a child, but when he feels his shoulder twinge and wrist aching he changes his mind. He sighs and tells him, “I think I’ve got a sprained wrist and there’s a cut on my shoulder, I’m not sure how big it is. I’m bruised all over too.”

Conner doesn’t say anything as he gently pushes Tim down on the bed and grabs the first aid kit. He wordlessly strips Tim from his cape, gloves, belt and the armoured top, only leaving him in his boots, leggings and undershirt. Tim takes off the mask and puts it down with the rest of his stuff. Tim watches Conner treat his wounds, the big hands having a surprising gentleness to them.

After wrapping his wrist Kon checks his shoulder and according to the half Kyrptonian his shoulder needed a couple stitches. Tim lets him deal with it and sits still as Conner administers his treatment. Soon enough he’s done and packs away the first aid kit. He then gives Tim a funny look.

“Why didn’t you have your telekinesis protection layer up. It would have stopped half of them bruises and cuts.”

Tim looks up at him as he answers. “I don’t know, guess I just wasn’t thinking about it so I never did it. I’m still not strong enough like you yet Kon where I’m not even aware I’m doing it. It would have taken up half of my concentration in the field and I can’t allow that. I guess it's still something I need to work on.”

“You are getting better Tim.” Conner comments.

“Thanks.” Tim says half heartedly.

“No seriously, you are!” He praises. Tim raises his eyebrow up at him and Conner smirks, “Well not as good as me like you said, but you’re still good.”

Tim rolls his eyes, of course his cockiness has got to come through somewhere. He then smirks as he gets an idea. Tim slowly gets off the bed and down onto the floor on his knees, they hurt slightly under the pressure but Tim puts it aside quickly. He then looks up at Kon and raises his good arm up towards him. Dramatically he says, “Oh great master of telekinesis, please teach me your ways!”

Tim takes a small amount of pride as he sees Kon looking baffled but then his face changes and he’s suddenly eyeing Tim up on the floor.

Now being the one who’s baffled Tim drops his arm and asks “What?”

Kon widely smiles. “Nothing, just you that's all.”

“What about me?”

“You on your knees before me, it's a pretty picture.”

Clicking onto Kon’s line of thought Tim rolls his eyes. “Of course that’s where your mind goes.” He starts to get off the floor and Kon helps, he’s still smiling.

There’s a pause between them and reaches up to kiss Conner lightly on the lips. It doesn’t last very long but soon enough Kon is pulling him in for another deeper kiss. Despite nearly dating for about three or four months Tim doesn’t think he’ll get used to this, having Kon’s mouth on his. It's just bizarre.

They part and Tim finds himself smiling. Conner smiles back at him though his confusion is clear. “What?” He asks.

Tim shrugs his good shoulder. “Nothing. Just thinking about us and how crazy it is about what we’re like now compared to what we were like about five months ago. We were constantly at each other’s throats.”

Kon’s smile turns into a knowing smirk. “Yeah but we’re still at each other’s throats... just for an entirely different reason...”

As if to prove his point Kon leans in and starts to kiss Tim’s neck and jaw. Tim lets out a small laugh as he lifts his head to give Kon more access. “I guess.”

Kon pulls away and looks at him “The other’s all have pizza planned for this evening and a list of movies. Are you joining in?”

Tim shrugs, “I’m not sure.”

He’s feeling conflicted, he wants to hang with the rest of the Titans but then again he just wants to be alone with Conner. He’s becoming a lot more aware of the pain and achiness travelling through his body and it's starting to affect him. He’s feeling tired.

Conner takes the decision out of his hands, “You’re looking exhausted Tim, get some sleep in here alright. When pizza comes I can come and wake you up.”

Tim nods and looks at his bed longingly. He then turns to Kon and in a quiet voice he asks “stay with me, please?”

Conner smiles softly “Of course. Why don’t you get yourself ready and into bed while I tell the others that you’re going to crash for a few hours then I’ll be back.”

Tim nods and heads for the bathroom as Conner exits the room. From down the hall he hears Kon shout “Oh and take some pain killers while you’re at it Tim!”

Tim takes his time from getting changed out of his leggings and into some loose shorts, he then changes his undershirt for one of Kon’s shirts. He goes back into his bathroom and takes a couple of pills, knowing if he didn’t do it willingly Kon would just force him to take them and that’s something he wants to avoid.

He was just climbing into bed when Conner comes back in. Tim watches as he kicks off his boots and climbs onto the bed next to him. After some shifting they get comfortable and start to relax.

It stays silent for a long while and Tim starts to feel himself dozing off when suddenly Kon’s speaking up. “Hey, I know I should probably know this by now but how did you become Robin again?”

Tim shifts his head and looks at Kon who’s looking at him with curious eyes. Tim shrugs, “Batman needs a Robin.” It's the same answer he always gives whenever someone in the hero community asks him a question like that. “When Jason... disappeared I noticed that Batman was more cold and darker than usual, I decided to take action and tried to get Nightwing to become Robin again. Story short I ended up becoming Batman’s sidekick even though it was never my intention.” Tim pauses and smiles as he remembers back to the past. “Before I became Robin I used to follow them around Gotham when I was younger trying to get the best photos I could of them. Even then I never imagined becoming the hero I idolised.”

It was quiet for some time but Kon was speaking up again. “So you used to go running around after Batman when you were a kid.”

“Yeah pretty much.”

Kon snorts. “Dude, that’s so lame.”

“Well at least I’m not the one who thought a leather jacket would get me all the girls.” Tim shoots back.

“That jacket was awesome. Do not dis the jacket. Anyway why the hell did your parents let you out at night, in Gotham of all places?”

“They didn’t know.” He tells Conner without even thinking, “I was left alone a lot as a kid, I just happened to start up my own hobby to keep me occupied.”

Conner gapes at him like a fish and Tim starts to feel self conscious, maybe he shouldn’t have told him that. It’s kind of always been a sensitive topic to him and he’s just completely opened up to Kon, hopefully it wasn’t the wrong decision.

Kon seems to decide that questioning it wasn’t worth the effort because instead he says “So you used to run around after Robin when the scaly pants were still a thing?”

“Yep. Dick may have been the original Robin but I followed Jason, he was my Robin.”

“Yeah?” Conner raises an eyebrow and Tim smiles sheepishly at the admission. “Well, doesn’t matter about any other Robins because you’ll always be _my_ Robin.”

Tim feels his face go hot at that. He leans over and takes Conner's face into his hands and places a kiss to his lips. He feels Conner’s arm snake around him to pull him up against his chest, doing that Kon deepens the kiss. It lasts for a few more seconds before they both pull away with loving smiles. Tim looks into Kon’s gorgeous blue eyes and tells him with that warm smile, “And you’ll always be my clone boy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's all folks, nothing like unrealistic alien robots and fluff to finish off with huh.  
> I have to admit that when I first started to write this I never expected it to be as long as it is haha, but oh well I regret nothing and I had fun writing it.  
> I want to say a big thank you to everyone who has stuck with me through this and to all of you who have left kudos and comments it means a lot to know that you guys have enjoyed this story despite the bumpy and uneven road that it's been travelling on. 
> 
> As I have said before I don't have a plan for a sequel even though I have left it open with what could potentially happen, if anyone would like one let me know in the comments and I'm sure given time I could eventually think of something up. 
> 
> But that is all from me for now, I have other TimKon one shots planned (they aren't to do with this story) so if you're interested keep an eye out for them. 
> 
> Thanks again to everyone who has read this story and has enjoyed it. XD
> 
> Edit: I now have a tumblr account, feel free to go check it out. Its just awhitehead17 :)


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